Earn a fixed rate of up to 4.2%* p.a. for 210 days with Versa Save! Plus, enjoy an additional FREE RM10 when you sign up using code VERSAMM10 with a min. cash-in of RM100 today. T&Cs apply. Monday, 29 Jun 2026 3:30 PM MYT JUNE 29 — A friend from Sibu suggested that I read the Malaysia Agreement 1963.The suggestion came out of the blue.I said I had.Read it again leh, he said.Wait lah, I said.When he insisted, I said: Ok lor.So, I read the Malaysia Agreement 1963, better known as MA63, again.MA63 is an agreement relating to Malaysia (with annexes, including the Constitutions of the States of Sabah, Sarawak and Singapore, the Malaysia Immigration Bill and the Agreement between the Governments of the Federation of Malaya and Singapore on common market and financial arrangements).It was signed in London on July 9, 1963.By MA63, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the Federation of Malaya, North Borneo, Sarawak and Singapore, desiring to conclude an agreement relating to Malaysia, agreed to eleven Articles of the agreement.Article I reads as follows:“The Colonies of North Borneo and Sarawak and the State of Singapore shall be federated with the existing States of the Federation of Malaya as the States of Sabah, Sarawak and Singapore in accordance with the constitutional instruments annexed to this Agreement and the Federation shall thereafter be called ‘Malaysia’.”As I explained in “Malaysia: Alliance of states, not partners or blocs”, North Borneo (as Sabah was then known) and Sarawak were Crown Colonies, which in simple words meant they were ruled by the British government. The author revisits MA63, reflecting on how Sabah and Sarawak were federated with Malaya to form Malaysia and why the agreement’s original Malaysia Day date matters. — Picture by Yusof Mat Isa Singapore was also a Crown Colony (1946-1959) before becoming a self-governing state within the British Empire as the State of Singapore in 1959.By MA63, the three became States of Sabah, Sarawak and Singapore federated with the existing States of the Federation of Malaya to become Malaysia. The Federation of Malaya was a sovereign state on August 31, 1957.The above explains why the United Kingdom, Federation of Malaya, North Borneo (Sabah), Sarawak and Singapore were the signatories to MA63.Malaysia is an alliance of states, not of partners or blocs (Malayan and Borneo).But it is Article II that I must concede as having been overlooked. It reads as follows:“The Government of the Federation of Malaya will take such steps as may be appropriate and available to them to secure the enactment by the Parliament of the Federation of Malaya of an Act in the form set out in Annex A to this Agreement and that it is brought into operation on 31st August 1963 (and the date on which the said Act is brought into operation is hereinafter referred to as ‘Malaysia Day’).”If not for a subsequent agreement between the parties to MA63 which was signed in Singapore on August 28, 1963 that amended the MA63 by substituting the date ‘16th September’ for the date ‘31st August’, the nation would have celebrated Merdeka Day and Malaysia Day on the same day — that is, August 31.It was intended that we celebrate August 31 as one united, independent Malaysians.If not for my Sibu friend, I would have continued to overlook it. The dates (August 31 and September 16) are like our dates of birth — different they may be, yet we are held together in friendship.So, let’s be held to that one tie that holds us as one united, independent Malaysians.* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail.