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The Flag of Malaysia: Part 4 Summary and Conclusion

The Flag of Malaysia: Part 4 Summary


From Original Design to Final Product

The Flag of Malaysia Part 1: The Beginning

The Federal Legislative Council (FLC) appointed a search Committee for the Flag of the Federation of Malaysia.

The Committee comprised eight members of the FLC.

The Terms of Reference of the Committee:

The Committee held its first meeting on 2nd August, 1949.

The Committee decided on the format and colours of the flag: White, Red, Yellow, and Blue. These colours predominate in the State flags.

An announcement inviting the people to submit the flag designs was made, which was carried by the newspapers in Malaya on 10th August, 1949. The contest was opened for one month. Almost all major newspapers circulating in the Federation of Malaya were printed in Singapore, including The Straits Times and the Utusan Melayu.

Mr Mohamed Hamzah, a draughtsman in the Public Works Department (PWD) in Johore Bahru, Johore submitted four designs, including a design which came to be labelled as Design No. 9 below. The design utilised four out of five designated colours.


A total of  373 designs were submitted by the public. The Committee shortlisted three designs. The three designs were released to the press on 15 November which were carried  in the front page of some of the newspapers such as The Malay Mail and the Utusan Melayu.

The Malay Mail, held an opinion poll, which it called a ballot. The people participated in the choice of the flag for Malaya not only through the ballot held by the Malay Mail but also by giving their opinions through readers column. The Malay Mail wrote its opinion in the leader's page. The ballot gave an overwhelming support for Design No. 9 but suggested modifications. Several writers in the Malay Mail wanted the Union Jack to be included in the final design, citing Malaya's close relationship with Britain and this would be similar to the flags of South Africa, Canada and Australia.

While in the Utusan Melayu, it was reported that the Malays preferred white for the colour of the Crescent and the Stars. There were suggestions that the stars should be an eleven pointed stars instead of five. To be sure, five Malay states have five pointed star on their flags, namely Johore, Malacca, Terengganu, Kelantan and Negeri Sembilan.

Because of the many comments made by the people, the Committee had to deliberate and made changes to flag (Design No. 9). The Menteri Besar of Johore, Dato' Onn Jaafar who was a member of the Committee, asked Mr Mohamed Hamzah to make the changes, as per design below:




Part 3: The Decision of the Conference of Rulers

Two designs mounted on a board were shown to the Tenth Meeting of the Conference of Rulers, Malay States, i.e Design No. 1, and Design No. 9.

After due deliberations, the Conference of Rulers made one very important change in the colour of the Crescent and Star which was changed from white to yellow.

The final design was announced to the public on 5th April, 1950, below.




The Flag of Malaysia: The Final Product.





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