In fact, Merdeka Square, Sultan Abdul Samad Building and Royal Selangor Club are closely related to each other. Merdeka Square, formerly known as Selangor Club Padang, is a cricket stadium in front of the Adu Shamo Building in Sudan. At midnight on August 31, 1957, with the approval of the British colonial government, Malaysia (then known as the United States of Malaya) officially broke away from British rule. The British flag was lowered here and the Malaysian flag was raised for the first time. To commemorate this historic moment, the flag-raising site now stands a 100-foot (95-meter) high flagpole, which has become one of the highest in the world.