PETALING JAYA: For the first time in the country’s history, Malaysians are flying the Jalur Gemilang with a difference. They have taken to cyberspace with the flag proudly displayed on their Twitter and Facebook.

The most popular one is Malaysia Wave created by graphic designer and programmer Mohd Hisham Mohd Hardi, 27, who is more popularly known on Twitter as shamhardy.

Since creating the Jalur Gemilang and posting it on http://twibbon.com/ a few days ago, some 2,000 people have already “picked it up”. It can also be placed on one’s Facebook profile.

“I was doing it for myself and then more people picked it up. I wanted to do something in the spirit of Merdeka Day,” he said.

“I didn’t expect it would be accepted by so many people. Many people have said the design is beautiful.”

Datin Paduka Marina Mahathir, known on Twitter as netraKL, said she decided to place it on her Twitter avatar after someone tweeted about it.

“I thought it was cool. It is a very ‘in-the-moment’ thing to do besides showing unity and flying the flag in a different way,” she said.

She added that the plus point was that once one placed on their Twitter avatar, a tweet would be sent out, attracting other people to do the same.

Student Harinder Singh, 22 said it was expressing one’s patriotism through the digital social media.

“It also reaches out to more people this way. If you have 1,000 followers, then they can see your avatar everytime you tweet. So, it shows the whole world,” he said.

He added that it was important to appreciate being a citizen of this country as Malaysians have it better than other countries such as China where they did not have the freedom to tweet.

The Star group chief editor Datuk Seri Wong Chun Wai, who has more than 3,000 followers on Twitter and tweets under chunwai09, said this was a way to demonstrate love for Malaysia to the world and how social media could make a difference.

“It’s also a way of making a statement in a creative way,” he said.

Writer W.W Lim, 26 said it was a fun thing to do besides flying the Jalur Gemilang on one’s car.

“It’s also a way to say that you are proud to be Malaysian,” she said.

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