Knowing our history

MY FACEBOOK feed has been full of dates, sums and history these past few days.

People – mostly Sarawakians – were writing or sharing posts prompted by the National Day celebration, largely to point out that the Aug 31 date commemorates independence for Malaya and Sabah in 1957 and 1963 respectively while Sarawak celebrated its independence day on July 22. Sarawak, Sabah and the Federation of Malaya (along with Singapore) then formed the new Federation of Malaysia on Sept 16, 1963, leading to the point that the more significant National Day celebration should be on Sept 16, not Aug 31, and that Malaysia is 53 years old (dating from 1963) and not 59.