Happy Malaysia Day

On September 16th, Malaysia celebrated "Malaysia Day" as a national holiday for the first time. Recently, August 31, Malaysia celebated "National Day", or Merdeka (Independence). Why the need for two holidays?

A Little History
All of the regions that are currently part of the country of Malaysia were previously British colonies. After World War II, most of the South East Asian countries began the move towards independence. On August 31, 1957 the Federation of Malaya declared its independence from Great Britain. Malaya was made up of a number of sultanates/kindgoms located on the Malay penninsula. Six years later, three other formerly British regions, Singapore, a small island located just south of the Malay penninsula, and Sarawak and Sabah, located on the Island of Borneo joined together with Malaya to form the new country of Malaysia. The plan was to announce the formation of the new country on August 31, Malayan Independence Day, but for various reasons Malaysia was not foermed until September 16th, 1963. Singapore only remained part of Malaysia for a couple of years before leaving and becoming its own country. Sabah and Sarawak, now collectively known as East Malaysia, remain a part of Malaysia.

Malaysia Day
Merdeka Day has been celebrated on August 31st on the pennisular since the formation of Malaya. However, some of the people in East Malaysia do not feel that August 31 should be considered to be the National Day of Malaysia because August 31st was the formation of Malaya and not Malaysia. Because of this, the current Primne Minister of Malaysia announced that from now on September 16th would be a national holiday known as Malaysia Day.

As an analogy, the 13 original American colonies declared their independence from Englad on July 4, 1776. The Fourth of July is a national holiday for all of the additional 37 states that have entered the union because the states agreed to become part of the United States of America (The USA and Texas did not merge to form the United States of AmeriTex). However, because Malaya, Saban, and Sarawak combined for form a new country know as Malaysia, an event worthy of its own day (and who objects to another holiday). Malaysia celebrated their first Malaysia Day yesterday. I hope it was a good one for all of you.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malaysia_Day