This Week In Vexillology #40

We were in Ecuador last week but this week we're headed to the other side of the world to Southeast Asia-  so I bet you can't say Negeri Sembilan three times fast, kids because this week we've got Malaysia:

Adopted on September 16th, 1963 for national and civil usage, the Malaysia won it's independence from the United Kingdom in 1957, forming the Federation of Malaysia was formed- which at the time did include Singapore.  If this flag looks sort of kind of familiar to people, well there's a reason for that- the flag was based on the Stars and Stripes of the United States of America though it's not without irony that we have to note that the Malaysians added a dollop of Islamic symbolism on top of that.   (It's actually got it's own name as well!  It's known as Jalur Gemilang- the Stripes of Glory!)

The blue in the canton represents the unity of the Malaysian people.   The crescent and the star represent Islam while the 14 red and white stripes represent the fourteen states of the Federation (including the state of Negeri Sembilan, if you were curious as to what that referred too.)  When the three new states of Singapore, Sarawak and Sabah joined the Federation the flag was amended to the fourteen stripes it contains today.  But when Singapore left* the flag remained unaltered:  the 14th stripe now represents the Federal District of Kuala Lumpur.

The yellow in the flag is the traditional color of the rules of the Malay states- while red and white are traditional colors in Southeast Asia.  The 14 points of the star (the Federal Star or Bintang Persekutuan) represents the unity amongst the states of the Federation.  (Oh and if you're going for trivia fact, the national motto is 'Unity is Strength.'

So put your hands together and give it up for Malaysia (not conicidentally one of the settings for one of my favorite movies- Entrapment.  I can still remember going to see that in the theaters.)  And until next time, remember to keep your flags flying- FREAK or otherwise!

*Curious thing...  my reference guide says that Singapore seceded.  Wikipedia's page on Singapore says that they were expelled from the Malaysian Federation by a vote of 126-0 and Wikipedia's page on Malaysia just says that 'they left.'  (Strokes chin thoughtfully...)  Hmmmmm.....