Malaysia’s first Merdeka FDC
My late father had collected first day covers (FDCs) of various countries, including our own. Recently, I got down to sorting through them, more than a year after he left us. Well, not really sorting through them, but transferring them to plastic boxes that will protect the FDCs better.
Later, when thinking about the approaching 50th anniversary of Malaysia’s independence, and what I can do on this blog to commemorate it, I remembered seeing an FDC of the 10th Merdeka in the collection. I remembered lingering over it to admire how clean and well-kept it’d remained all these years. So I went back through the box holding the Malaysian FDCs, and came across an even older FDC – in fact, the country’s very first Merdeka FDC, postmarked 31 August 1957. Its condition was less clean and less than well-kept, but it was a historic FDC, nonetheless. But there was not all – I also found an alternative version, so in fact, there are two versions of the country’s first Merdeka FDC.
Put side by side, all three FDCs tell a story of how we’ve progressed – the language used, the racial communities represented. So here, in chronological order, Malaysia’s first Merdeka FDC (both versions) and the 10th Merdeka FDC.
(Oh wait, the 10th Merdeka FDC actually commemorates the 10th anniversary of Malaysia; Malaya, the country’s original name when it gained independence in 1957, had been renamed Malaysia in 1963 to reflect the addition of the states of Sabah and Sarawak to Malaya, so this FDC commemorates the 10th anniversary of that event and not of the 1957 independence.)
FDC commemorating Merdeka in 1957, postmarked 31 August 1957, and featuring three of the four main languages (English, Malay and Chinese):
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A second version of the 1957 Merdeka FDC:
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By the time of the 10th anniversary of Malaysia in 1973, the country had standardised its choice of main language – Malay – which is the only language featured on the FDC, including on the postmark. In additon to the Malaysian flag, the FDC also featured the flags of the 13 Malaysian states:
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Happy Birthday, Malaysia. We’ve come a long way.
