Why Malaysia is in two halves

Two British territories

Peninsular Malaysia fills most of the southern end of the Malay Peninsula. East Malaysia, the states of Sarawak and Sabah, is separated from it by some 400 miles (640 km) of the South China Sea and covers roughly the northern quarter of Borneo, with the small sultanate of Brunei wedged in between.^[1]

Their histories ran separately. In 1841 the sultan of Brunei made the English adventurer James Brooke raja of the Sarawak River basin, and his family ruled Sarawak for a century, enlarging it at Brunei’s expense until its present boundaries were reached by 1906. North-eastern Borneo was the last area to come under British control: from 1881 the British North Borneo Company ruled it as a protectorate.^[5] After the Second World War both became British crown colonies, while Malaya became independent on 31 August 1957 and Singapore stayed a crown colony.^[3]

A federation across the sea

In 1961 Malayan and British officials proposed a federation of Malaya, Sarawak, North Borneo, Brunei and Singapore. Britain wanted to end colonial rule it now found burdensome; Malaya’s prime minister, Tunku Abdul Rahman, thought the non-Chinese majorities of the Borneo states would balance Singapore’s Chinese majority.^[3] Elections in both colonies returned parties that mostly accepted independence by merging, and support grew after the Philippines claimed North Borneo.^[3]

The Malaysia Agreement, signed in London on 9 July 1963, federated North Borneo, Sarawak and Singapore with the states of Malaya “as the States of Sabah, Sarawak and Singapore”, and the federation “shall thereafter be called ‘Malaysia’”.^[2] It was meant to start on 31 August 1963 but came into force on 16 September.^[2] Brunei, invited to join, stayed a British protectorate.^[3]

The new country faced Indonesian military opposition until 1966. In 1965 friction between Malay federal leaders and Singapore’s mostly Chinese leaders, above all Lee Kuan Yew, ended with Singapore leaving the federation at Malaysia’s urging.^[4] That left Malaysia as it is today: the peninsula on one side of the sea and Sarawak and Sabah on the other.^[1]

“The Colonies of North Borneo and Sarawak and the State of Singapore shall be federated with the existing States of the Federation of Malaya”^[2]