In a recent article, I inadvertently confessed that independence for me has had only a short history of 44 years, not 50 years as touted by the national narrative.

A reader by the name of Uncle Yap wrote a letter to Malaysiakini, giving a long argument on why I might be wrong. Fortunately, a few other readers presumably from Sarawak came to my rescue, pointing out how in 1963, Sarawak formed, and not joined Malaysia, on an equal footing with Sabah, Singapore, and the Federation of Malaya.

The matter was somehow brought up in the gossipy chat portal Sarawak Talk , and found its way into the Sarawak newspaper, the Borneo Post . Sarawak's first deputy chief minister and a participant to the process in 1963, James Wong Kim Min, was interviewed, and he gave the testimony that indeed Sarawak helped to form Malaysia, and it was not a matter of joining an existing federation.