Thursday, 18 April 2024: The High Commission of Malaysia in Kenya organised a special programme to promote Malaysia through the screening of an animation film, MECHAMATO which was highly rated and popular in Malaysia and in several other countries. The event was held at a popular cinema in Nairobi city centre, attended by Ambassadors, diplomats, representatives from film industry, university lecturers, teachers, businessmen, NGOs, media representatives, government officials, Malaysian diaspora, university and school students from a number of schools and universities. At the same time, Malaysia was promoted through cultural and food diplomacy as the guests were served with some light Malaysian food like sate, karipap (curry puff), jemput pisang, seri muka, kuih lompang (kosui), and the usual drinks in Malaysia; sirap limau and teh tarik. Culturally, the officers of the High Commission promoted traditional Malay costumes by wearing baju Melayu, baju kurung, kebaya and songket which made the event more colourful and exciting.
The high quality and very exciting movie proved that Malaysian animators can produce world class animation movie. The movie really captured the interest of children and youth who formed the majority of the audience. It was very encouraging to hear comments from the equally excited parents who accompanied their children that the movie was so good, suitable to be enjoyed by the whole family members and should be repeatedly screened. The movie was also praised for instilling good moral t the children such as good deeds and perseverance will finally be rewarded.
The movie also led to the surge of interest among the school students to study animation and many have already planned to make Malaysia as their country of choice to take the available courses. In his speech before the movie, the High Commissioner, H.E. Ruzaimi Mohamad said Malaysia has a number of good universities that offer courses on animation film production. He also encouraged the students and their parents to consider Malaysian universities for tertiary education and animation could be one of the good options as animation industry is known to be lucrative business and has very bright future.
