happy birthday, malaysia!
Today we take a trip back down memory lane.
The moon and the star represent Islam, the official religion of the country. Just because it is official does not mean that *everyone* is a Muslim. Generally if you were not born a Malay (note that there is a difference between Malay and Malaysian - the former is a race and the latter is a nationality) you are quite free to choose and follow other religions.
Fourteen is the number of strips and points of the star - they represent the 13 states and 1 Federal Territory (even though we have 3 FT, they are all still under FT) of Malaysia.
The blue symbolises the unity of Malaysians, though I can’t understand the link. Yellow represents the monarchy. I think we have one of the most interesting monarchy (state and country) developments in the world, thanks to our ex PM. 
We gained Independence on 31st August 1957 but became one on 16 September 1963.
Happy birthday, Malaysia!
We love you long time.
Tags: jalur gemilang, malaysia, malaysia day
re: sept 16
i didn’t know that? very interesting…though of course, i was also never there for my sejarah classes.
re:i long you long time.
maybe i’m just perverted but is that a reference to full metal jacket?
i wonder why we never celebrate Malaysia Day….most importantly why isnt today a public holiday???? heh
HAPPY BIRTHDAY MALAYSIA !!!
Thank You for that Trip
Suanie always make me so much smarter
re: sejarah classes
me neither
re: i long you long time
should be ‘love’ and not ‘long’
typo, as corrected by my sister
oO friday blues already?
Hail to the Federation!
All hail to the Federation!
ahem… the red stands for ………. ?
Govt bleeding the non malay malaysian ? *chuckle* ? just kidding.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TOOOOO YOOOOOOOUU!!!!
it’s a holi-holidayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy
i don’t know leh.. hehe you go find out
iyer… *pouts*
Blue represents unity, as you either have to leave through one of your neighburing countries, and they’d throw you into the deep blue sea if they found out you were trying to get into their country … or you have to leave by swimming in the blue sea … so Blue means unity as it represents all those Malaysian who havent’ learnt to swim well enough to leave.
That’s my uneducated guess anyway!
(Explains why so much blue on the Aussie flag too!)
interesting post…
But I’ve a couple of questions…
“13 states and 1 Federal Territory ”
What is the fereral Territory?
“We gained Independance on 31st August 1957 but became one on 16 September 1963″
What do you mean “became one”? was m’sia every split?
allo allo
The FTs are KL, Putrajaya (the new administrative city) and Labuan (off the Sabah coast). They are collectively known as ONE state hence governed by a Federal Territory ministry. So every Feb 1 is Federal Territory Day, and anyone working/studying in those three FTs gets a day off.
Typical Malaysian, thinking of it in terms of ‘free’ holidays
Malaya gained Independance from the British and the official date was 31 Aug 1957. That was when the first Prime Minister of Malaysia went ‘Merdeka Merdeka Merdeka’ on black and white tv.
Then somehow Sabah and Sarawak, now known as East Malaysia got coaxed into joining ‘Malaysia’. The official ‘joining’ date was supposed to be earlier but somehow it got pushed to 16 Sept 1963.
Hence that’s the date of the unification of MALAYSIA = became one
That was also when the ‘design the country’s flag’ contest revealed a winner. Unfortunately the winner is now dead so we can’t ask him why he modeled our country’s flag after the US flag.
If you are really interested, the Colonel wrote a nice piece here :
http://nsds3.blogspot.com/2005/09/malaysia-day-afternoon-edition.html
mmmm… in response to the racist charges of recent times… you should get a reward i suppose?
no, i am not a police nor a moral guardian.
wow, thanks for the info… i didnt know about this FT thing.. hehe