To the benefit of readers, today is Malaysia Day. Might not be something that you would know especially if you’re not Malaysians. And if you’re Malaysian and yet you don’t know about it… all I can say is SHAME ON YOU!!

A little bit of history (source Wikipedia)…

Malaysia Day is held on September 16 every year to commemorate the establishment of Malaysian federation on the same date in 1963. It marked the joining together of Malaya, North Borneo, Sarawak, and Singapore to form Malaysia. The formation of the new federation was planned to occur on June 1, 1963 but was later postponed to August 31, 1963 in order to coincide with the sixth Hari Merdeka. Several issues related to the Indonesian and the Filipino objection to the formation of Malaysia delayed the declaration to September 16 of the same year. The postponement was also done to allow the United Nations team time to conduct referendums in North Borneo (now Sabah) and Sarawak regarding the two states participation in a new federation.^[1]

The formation of Malaysia was made possible through the introduction of the Malaysia Bill to the Malayan Parliament on July 9, 1963 and consent from the Yang di-Pertuan Agong on August 29, 1963.^[1]

Prior to the formation of Malaysia, Singapore and North Borneo unilaterally declared independence from the United Kingdom on August 31 1963, thus coinciding with the sixth anniversary of the Malayan independence.

Malaysia Day is not a public holiday. However, it is coincidental with Birthday of Yang di-Pertua of Sabah, making the day a public holiday in Sabah.^[2]

So Malaysia isn’t just about Hari Merdeka (Independance Day) which falls on 31 August 1957 since that’s only for the formation of the Federation of Malaya. Malaysia should have been about 16 September 1963.

Anyway, I’ll be following the developments of Malaysia quite closely in the coming weeks…. there might be another independance. Independance from the weakeast government that Malaysia has ever had……