Malaysia Day is held on September 16 every year to commemorate the establishment of the Malaysian federation on the same date in 1963. It marked the joining together of Malaya, North Borneo, Sarawak, and Singapore to form Malaysia. The formation of the new federation was planned to occur on June 1, 1963, but was later postponed to August 31, 1963, in order to coincide with the sixth Hari Merdeka. Several issues related to the Indonesian and the Filipino objection to the formation of Malaysia delayed the declaration to September 16 of the same year. The postponement was also done to allow the United Nations team time to conduct referendums in North Borneo (now Sabah) and Sarawak regarding the two states participation in a new federation.
The formation of Malaysia was made possible through the introduction of the Malaysia Bill to the Malayan Parliament on July 9, 1963, and consent from the Yang di-Pertuan Agong on August 29, 1963.
Prior to the formation of Malaysia, Sarawak gained its transitional administration on July 22, 1963, while Singapore and North Borneo (which was renamed Sabah) began its transitional administration from the United Kingdom on August 31, 1963, thus coinciding with the sixth anniversary of the Malayan independence.
Since 2010, Malaysia Day becomes a public holiday. Prime Minister of Malaysia Najib Razak made the decision after a question-and-answer session at the Malaysian Parliament on October 19. 2009. This means Malaysians have two celebrations related to Malaysia's independence.
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“The UN is not just a product of do-gooders. It is harshly real. The day will come when men will see the UN and what it means clearly. Everything will be all right—you know when? When people, just people, stop thinking of the United Nations as a weird Picasso abstraction, and see it as a drawing they made themselves.”
—Dag Hammarskjöld (1905–1961)