SELAMAT HARI MALAYSIA

Having a Thai wife, I cant help but to put an extra effort in knowing more about my own country, Malaysia. My wife constantly ask me questions on our traditions, culture and today she asked me why are we on holiday? I said, today is our Malaysia Day and with a puzzled expression, she asked I thought we had just recently celebrated our independence day on 31st August?

So here I am, explaining to her and to those uninitiated, what is the different between Malaysia independence day and Malaysia Day.

Our independence day is celebrated on 31st August every year to commemorate our independence from the British colonial ruling in 1957 (57 years ago) but there is no Malaysia. Only the Federation of Malaya. Malaysia was formed on 16 September (today, 51 years ago) in 1963 with the inclusion of North Borneo (now known as Sabah), Sarawak, Singapore and the Federation of Malaya. Singapore pulled out from Malaysia in 1965 due to political indifference.

16 September is the day when all the members (namely Sarawak) achieved its independence and the day Malaysia was born. However, it was only since 2010 that Malaysia has declared today a public holiday... Yahoo?!!

HAPPY MALAYSIA DAY.