Farouq Omaro's letter We're not 49, we're 43, thank you refers. While it is true Sabah and Sarawak became independent six years after the 11 states of West Malaysia, it is not true that there was no Malaysia before Sept 16, 1963. Malaysia is the alternate name of Malaya and Malaya refers to the Malay continent which now comprises Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, East Timor, Brunei and the Philippines.

Malaysia, Malaya, Nusantara (Middle Kingdom, the title of the ancient Melaka and Johor empires which ruled the continent), East India, and Indonesia, all refer to the same continent, that is, the Malay continent. The terms were coined by British colonial writers James Richardson Logan and George Samuel Windsor Earl in the 1800s.

Ahmad Sukarno chose the name Indonesia for Dutch Malaya (Dutch East India) which he led to freedom in 1945. The term Malaya was adopted by Umno, MCA and MIC - the Alliance and later Barisan Nasional - which won freedom for British Malaya on Aug 31, 1957.

However, this concept of Malaya was not confined to the Malayan mainland (West Malaysia) but also to the Malayan islands yet to be liberated from British rule - British Borneo with Sabah and Sarawak (Brunei went it alone). Sabah and Sarawak were part of the Alliance's independence plan, said Ghazali Shafie the ex-foreign minister, but Britain was not ready to grant them independence on Aug 31, 1957.

Thus, Sabah and Sarawak became independent on Aug 31, 1963, and joined the 11 existing states of Malaya in an enlarged Malaya termed Malaysia on Sept 16, 1963. At no time was there any plan by the Kuala Lumpur government to form a Malaysia of three equal states namely Malaya, Sabah and Sarawak as some Sabahans and Sarawakians often claim,

Malaysia was always 13 states. Fourteen if one includes Singapore which left after two years.