50 Years of Nationhood - Part II

10 years after the formation of Malaysia, a set of stamps was released on 31 August 1973 to commemorate the 10th anniversary of Malaysia (see below). It was correct that Malaysia was 10 years old in 1973!

However, this understanding of how old is Malaysia is becoming unclear as the equation of independence to nationhood deeply rooted in the mind of people. In 1982, a set of stamps to commemorate the 25th anniversary of Indpendence was released (see below). It is semantically correct to say that Malaya was 25 years old in 1982 but Malaysia was only 19 years old in the same year.


Strangely, postal authority of Malaysia again to remind the people of Malaysia that Malaysia was 25 years old in 1988. So, a set of stamps was released to commemorate 25 years of the entrance of Sabah and Sawarak to Malaysia (see below). In other words, Malaysia was correctly recorded for 25 years old in 1988.

However, the age of Malaysia became confusing again. In 2003, Pos Malaysia (Malaysia postal authority) released a set of stamps and a miniature sheet to commemorate the 46th anniversary of Independence (see below). So, how old is Malaysia? People of Malaysia are in confusion........

50 Years of Nationhood - Part I

On 31 August 1957, a nation called MALAYA was born. Malaya consisted of 9 sultanate states namely Perlis, Kedah, Perak, Selangor, Negri Sembilan, Johore, Pahang, Terengganu and Kelantan. To celebrate this important event, a single stamp was released on that day (stamp below). The portrait of Tunku Abdul Rahman, the first prime minister of Malaya was printed on the stamp.



A year later (1958), a set of two stamps was released (stamps below) to commemorate 1st anniversary of independence. The 10-sen stamp is Stadium Mederka and the 30-sen stamp is the portrait of the first Yang Di-pertuan Agong.



On 16 September 1963, Penang, Malacca, Singapore, Sabah and Sarawak joined Malaya, and this gave rise the formation of Malaysia (stamps below). Nevertheless, Singapore left Malaysia in 1965 and became an independent country by itself.


By 1967, when Malaysia celebrated its 10 years anniversary of indenpendence (stamps below), the nation of Malaysia consists of 13 states.

ASEAN - Thailand

As the other countries in ASEAN, Thailand also commemorated the 20th anniversary of ASEAN in 1987 by releasing a set of four stamps. The design of these stamps is excellent. Six country members in ASEAN (Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Brunei and the Philippines) are represented by six ropes, and these ropes are tightly twined at the root signifying strong relationship and unity - absolutely symbolic and beautiful!

Portugal ATM - Flamingo

I really like this set of flamingo ATM issued by Portugal postal authority. These ATMs were released/used before the introduction of Euro. The design of the ATMs is simple but attractive. Bird motif on the ATMs makes this ATM set much sought item, particularly for bird stamp collectors.

40 Years of ASEAN - Malaysia Perspective

On 8 August 1967, five Southeast Asia countries namely Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and the Philippines signed Bangkok Declaration. It was the moment a new regional organization was born. This new organization is called ASEAN, an abbreviation of Association of Southeast Asian Nations. Since its formation, the number of member countries of ASEAN have been increased from five to six and then to currently ten. The present member countries consist of the founders of five together with Brunei, Myanmar, Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. To show the importance of ASEAN to Malaysia, Pos Malaysia issued stamps to commemorate the anniversaries of ASEAN in 1977 (10thanniversary), 1982 (15th anniversary), 1987 (20thanniversary), 1992 (25th anniversary), 1997 (30thanniversary) and the latest 2007 (40th anniversary).

10th anniversary (five member countries); Date ofissue: 8 August 1977

15th anniversary (five member countries); Date ofissue: 8 August 1982

20th anniversary (six member countries); Date ofissue: 14 December 1987

25th anniversary (six member countries); Date ofissue: 8 August 1992

30th anniversary (ten member countries); Date ofissue: 8 August 1997

40th anniversary (ten member countries); Date ofissue: 8 August 2007

A Cover from Brazil

A cover framed with colourful stamps (Brazil-China joint issue) from Brazil dated on 10 Jan 2001.

Malaysia Frog Stamps - Perf. Flaw

A minor error was recorded on perforation of the 30s (Perf. 12) frog stamp sheet (a single sheet contains 20 stamps in the format of 5x4). The upper horizontal perforation of the second row stamps was shifted one-pin-hole down creating first row stamps with larger size and second row stamps with small size (short of one vertical pin hole). The other three rows are not affected by this flaw.

Malaysia Frog Stamps - Perf. Varieties

The recent released frog stamps by Pos Malaysia have two perf. varieties - P12 and P13.5. There is no indication of which perf. variety is rarer. However, one needs some effort to gether both the perf. varieties for all the values as different post offices sold different perf. variety on different values.

P12 x 12

P13.5 x 13.5