What's the history behind the Malaysian Flag?

Question

I remember about an article I read some time back about a flagmaker (the forgotten one), from Johore... Somehow, this guy didn't get any recognition for his efforts that should have been regarded as the greatest contribution in Malaysian history as it was this Jalur Gemilang that had replaced the Union Jack...

Tell me, people...

Answer 1

I know Malaysians will oppose me on this but let the facts speak: Malaysian and previous Malayan flag have been inspired by the Stars and Stripes of US.

For your comparison I have provided links to all the flags.

US flag initially comprised of 13 stripes and 13 stars representing each of the colonies upon the declaration of independence. As the union spreaded, new stars have been added but not stripes. Designers simply found it inconvenient and since US have always been an expansionist country, they expected the country to spread. They have decided to retain the number of stripes since the flag would look like an old skirt if it had too many stripes (try to imagine it with 50 stripes!) but added new stars for each new state.

Wikipedia says that there is no connection between the US and Malaysian flag, but let's don't trust it blindly. The looks of both flags tell a different story.

Exactly like the USA, Malaya also designed its flag in a way that the stripes represent the number of states. Instead of small white stars, one big yellow star has been used and each of the points represents each state and one is for the federal territories. Unlike USA Malaysia is not that of an expansionist country (last hopes for expansion of Malaysian federation were dispersed in 1984 when Brunei refused to join Malaysia), the number of stripes can change if necessary.

Speculations what do the colours of the Malaysian flag represent may be a subject to political manipulation. Let's say that the white and red are the flag of Malays and the yellow is the royal colour so it stands for sultan, but the blue is a bit tricky.

Pre-independence and post-independence interpretations of the flag differ a lot and I would call them all, especially those newer rubbish. Initially the blue was supposed to stand for the colour of the Union Jack, then for the Commonwealth, now they say it is for peace and unity of the Malay people. Bla bla bla.

If the designer of the US flag got the idea from the flag of British East India Company, it is not unlikely that the designers of Malayan flag got the idea from the same source. But the first is harder to prove than the second.

Note that the name Jalur Gemilang (Stripes of Glory) has only been adopted on 40th anniversary of independence, that is in 1997.

The crescent represents Islam. That's just another example of common ignorance. Crescent is not a symbol of Islam and has nothing to do with Islam. The reason why so many "Muslim" countries adopt the crescent is the Ottoman influence. The crescent was the symbol of Ottomans and since their empire stretched from west coast of Africa to the eastern frontiers of Persia, Ottoman influence was widespread. What hit the nail on the head was appointing Ottoman sultan as the khalifa. That's how all Muslims owed some allegiance to Ottoman sultans, although it didn't really work in practice after the Ottomans had corrupted. So Muslim merchant fleets were sailing around the Indian ocean and beyond with the crescent flag and that's how people like Malays adopted it thinking it was the flag of Islam. It wasn't though.

Counting the number of points and stripes of the Malayan flag confirms the theory. When Sabah and Sarawak joined Malaya, two extra stripes were added and two extra points on the star. Another point on the star and a stripe have been added for Singapore. After the break-up of Singapore, the extra stripe and the point were to representthe federal territory (only KL in that time) and now federal territories (KL, Labuan, Putrajaya).

Speculations that Malaysian flag stands for independence have no firm ground, they are merely a political tool. Malayan flag had been adopted in 1950, which is 7 years before independence and Malaysian flag is just an upgrade of Malayan flag.

About the designer: Mohamed Hamzah, a JKR employee from Johor designed Malayan flag in 1947. He made several designed and the flag of Malaya had been selected through voting. The star was initially 5-pointed star like the one on the flag of Turkey, but then Dato' Onn Jaafar told Mohamed to changed it to an 11-point star to represent all 11 states.

The song Jalur Gemilang appeared in 2000, half a century after the flag and it's full of political manipulations so we can't take it as a criterion for what do some elements of the flag stand for. The only clear thing is that the yellow is for the king. It says blue is for harmony but that's just a way for BN to keep everybody happy-hippy and that the Chinese and Indians won't complain too much.

Answer 2

Turkish Flag began to apply in Ottoman Empire circumstances, in accordance to legend after the conflict of Manzikert human beings said mirrored image of crescent moon and superstar on marties blood. pink characterize marties blood, crescent and superstar is a Pre-Islamic image, characterize Gods all-understanding nature. Al Sancak or pink banner also potential Ottoman Empire grow to be a successor of Seljuk Empire.

Answer 3

I'm not so sure of its history but it looks like US flag which is kinda cool...

Answer 4

so what!..

for all that i know .. i'm still malaysian not american or thais or whatever...

proud & always proud of my flag.. even one day they change it to dog's pooh..