Malaysia flag, its evolution story

    

    Malaysia flag what we seen today has gone through a great evolution in history. It was a great heritage that most of us don't know about it. Today, we will share this great knowledge with all of you. Malaysia flag known as "Jalur Gemilang" consist of 14 stripes of red and white colours. These stripes represent 13 states and one Federal Territory in Malaysia. The 13 states were Perlis, Kedah, Pulau Pinang, Kelantan, Terengganu, Perak, Pahang, Selangor, Negeri Sembilan, Melaka, Johor, Sabah and Sarawak. The Federal Territory consist of Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya and Labuan. The red colour on the stripes means bravery and the white colour means purity. The crescent represent Islam as the official religion. The 14 points of star known as Federal Star represent 13 states and one Federal Territory. The yellow colour means the royal colour of the Malay Rulers. The blue colour means the unity of Malaysian people. The combination of three main colours of red, blue and white symbolize the friendship relationship between Federation of Malaya and United Kingdom and also the unification of Federation of Malaya with other Commonwealth countries.

    This flag history started back when Malaya flag was created back in the 1940's. The Malayan flag was designed by Mohamad Hamzah, a 29 year old architect working for the Public Works Department (JKR) in Johor Baharu, Johor. He entered the Malayan flag design competition on 29 November 1949. His flag design that won that competition and the design was similar with the current flag but with a five pointed star. It borrows major design elements from the East India Company flag (1801-1857), notably the red and white stripes. 

East India Company flag (1801-1857).

The flag design by Mohamad Hamzah.

    The Malaya flag gone through few changes before being approved by Conference of Rulers on 22 and 23 February 1950. Later on, it was brought by the Federal Legislative Council to the Chief Secretary for approval by His Majesty King George VI and was approved by His Majesty King George VI on 19 May 1950. It was first raised in front of Istana Selangor on 26 May 1950. On 31 August 1957, it was raised upon independence at Merdeka Square in place of the Union Jack flag. The Malaya flag consist of 11 stripes and 11 points of star that represent 11 states in Malaya such as Perlis, Kedah, Pulau Pinang, Kelantan, Terengganu, Perak, Pahang, Selangor, Negeri Sembilan, Melaka and Johor.

Malaya flag.

    When Malaysia was formed in 16 September 1963, the Malaya flag was known as Malaysia flag. It also changed into 14 stripes and 14 points of star because of the inclusion of 11 states in Malaya, Sabah, Sarawak and Singapore. However, when Singapore was out from Malaysia in 1965, many sources said the Malaysia flag remain the same. BUT, there was a proof that the Malaysia flag has changed into 13 stripes and 13 points of star for a moment. After that, Malaysia flag changed back into 14 stripes and 14 points of star. Below was an evidence of the existence of that 13 stripes and 13 points of star flag, its genuine, authentic and antique:-

Very rare genuine, authentic and antique Malaysia 13 stripes and 13 points of star flag.

    On 31 August 1997, Tun Dr Mahathir who was a Malaysia Prime Minister of Malaysia at that time, giving a name for this beautiful Malaysia flag known as "Jalur Gemilang".

  

How Perlis football team got his "Northern Lion" title.

     In the 1950's, Perlis football team performance was worst because in all matches, it lost with a result 0-6 to the opponent. Every matches was held in Derma English School field or hospital field. The Perlis Football Association (PFA) only has white cloths to cover as a wall and only a small amount of fee being charge for entrance. Therefore, many spectators climb the trees in the field to watch the game for free. In 1968, Perlis with the great players has beaten Singapore in the final game of "Piala Emas Raja-Raja". The great players were Tok Chod, Jalaludin, Osman, Ali Osman, Megat, Idris Nor and others. They have brought Perlis into a golden era. This great team of players were multiracial team with the mixture of Malay, Chinese and Indian became the backbone of this team not only in action for "Piala Emas Raja-Raja" but also in Malaysia Cup. 

     Then, in 1960's, PFA was managed by Mr. Mansor Osman (known as Pak Chok Putih) and Tuan Aman Shah Khalid as an assistant. After that, it was taken over by today King of Perlis and Tuan Aman Shah Khalid still an assistant. At that time, under the management of today King of Perlis, the quality of Perlis team performance has increased. Perlis was no longer a punching bag team, but were feared by its opponents. It has a national level players such as Bakri Ibni, Saidin Osman, Osman Ibrahim, Ibrahim, Ali Osman, Tok Chod and other well known players. When there was a match between Perlis and Singapore in Singapore, the newspaper in Singapore gave a wide coverage as Perlis was a great team and they gave a title to the Perlis team known as "Northern Lion". This title stick to the Perlis team until today.

*this story credit to Tuan Aman Shah Khalid, Northern Lion Perlis Fan Club and Anuar Che Ahmad.

Perlis team during their golden era.

Malaysia football heritage collectors live interview in local television programme

On 18 December 2015, two lucky Malaysian football heritage collectors were interviewed live by local television known as TV3 in the "Malaysia Hari Ini" programme. The topic on that interview was about Malaysia football heritage collections. These two lucky Malaysian collectors were Faiz and Sahrin. On that interview, they were asked about their collections mostly on how they got it, how much they have spend for it, what they have in their collections and their plans for their collections. Their collections consist of football jerseys, football match books, football souvenirs, football match pennants, football emblems, flags, football medals and football photos dated as early as 1930's. They collect all these because of their passions and loved on Malaysia football history and its glorious era. It keeps on growing and without a person like them, we never knew and learn about Malaysia football heritage. Its a great job to keep the heritage preserved and known by nowadays generation. Keep it up !!!

The two collectors were in live interview.

Faiz, one of the collector.

Sahrin, one of the collector.

The two collectors together with the television hosts and the collections memoralibia.

The first Merdeka Football Festival match book, part of the collection.

HMS Malaya Cup match book, part of the collection.

Football Association of Malaya emblem, part of the collection.

Football players Pesta Bola Merdeka Tournament bag and also a match book, part of the collection.

Selangor Rangers vs Malacca Chinese match photo, part of the collection.

Football jerseys, part of the collection.

Two of the hosts holding Mokhtar Dahari jerseys.

Pesta Bola Merdeka tournament souvenir, part of the collection.

*Reminder: Anyone who wants to contribute their sources/artifacts to be review in this blog, do not hesitate to contact Aizusan the curator through this blog comment.