(The Star) - Three Malaysians have been honoured with the Tokoh Hari Malaysia award during the Malaysia Day celebration here.

Tan Sri Harris Salleh from Sabah, Tan Sri Hamdan Sirat from Sarawak and Ismail Embong from Terengganu were honoured for their services and contributions to their states and the country.

Hamdan is a former state commissioner of police, former acting governor and former state public service commission chief.

Ismail is a prolific national artist whose works include a mural of Malaysia’s history and a life-sized painting called Tujuh Negarawan that features the seven past and present Umno presidents.

Harris was Sabah’s chief minister from 1976 to 1985.

The trio received their awards from Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak here yesterday.

Najib also presented awards to two national Paralympic athletes who won the silver and bronze medals in London recently.

The duo are Hasihin Sanawi, who won the silver in the men’s archery, and Mohd Ziyad Zolkefli, who captured the bronze in the men’s shot putt at the Paralympic Games in the F20 category.

Najib also presented the Malaysia Book of Records certificates to the organisers of Dikir Barat and Twitter Merdeka.

Dikir Barat entered the Malaysia Book of Records after it managed to gather 8,500 participants.

The other two certificates were given for the largest gathering of Twitter users (10,128) and most tweets within an hour (3,611,323) during the Merdeka Day event at the National Stadium in Bukit Jalil on Aug 31.