Why Malaysia and Singapore Are in the ‘Wrong’ Time Zone
Countries near the equator enjoy a constant 12 hours of daylight throughout the year, from sunrise at 6am to sunset at 6pm.
But when people from peninsular Malaysia and Singapore visit neighbouring countries, they might feel the day gets brighter earlier and sunset comes too soon.
If you look at a time zone map of Southeast Asia, you’ll quickly see why.
Despite Kuala Lumpur and Singapore being in the same longitudinal zone as Bangkok, Jakarta and Hanoi, they are situated in different time zones.
So how come peninsular Malaysia and Singapore run an hour ahead of the countries around them?
After all, if we were to go purely by longitude, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore should fall within the GMT +7:00 time zone.
To understand how this came to be, we have to go back in time to when Malaysia and Singapore were under British rule.
The different time zones across Southeast Asia. Image: vidiani.com
Time after time
In 1901, the Federated Malay States and Straits Settlements adopted British Malayan Mean Time, which was based on Singapore Mean Time (GMT +6:55).
This was done to ease scheduling issues arising from increasing rail, postal and telegraph links between Britain’s various colonial possessions on the Malay Peninsula.
Singapore was chosen as it was the administrative capital of the Federated Malay States and Straits Settlements then.
Four years later, this was rounded up to GMT +7:00 and named British Malayan Standard Time.
This eventually gave way to Daylight Standard Time (GMT +7:20) in 1933 after lawmakers proposed giving labourers more leisure time after work by moving the clocks forward.
This was then amended to GMT +7:30 in 1941 - the first time Malaya shared the same time zone as North Borneo and Sarawak.
Before this, time out east was anywhere between 10 minutes and an hour ahead of Kuala Lumpur.
The Federated Malay States and Straits Settlements went through a number of time changes. Image: Getty Images
Synchronising the clocks
Ironically, it was the formation of Malaysia on 16 September 1963 that would once again set the peninsular and Borneo states apart, at least horologically.
Peninsular Malaysia kept to GMT +7:30 while Sabah and Sarawak went 30 minutes ahead to GMT +8:00.
And it would stay like this all the way until 1981, when a newly elected Malaysian prime minister set out to bring the country under one time zone.
In one of his first acts as premier, Dr Mahathir Mohamad pushed to bring clocks in peninsular Malaysia forward to match those in East Malaysia to minimise disputes over working hours.
“The Sabah and Sarawak times had been chosen because it was appropriate in terms of daylight savings and convenience to all Malaysians,” a parliament motion by Dr Mahathir read.
He added that East Malaysian time was chosen because it was more in line with international practice, where the difference between time zones was one full hour rather than 30 minutes.
So, on 1 January 1982, the clocks in peninsular Malaysia were brought forward to match those in East Malaysia (GMT +8:00).
Singapore, which separated from Malaysia in 1965, followed suit the same day.
And that’s how Kuala Lumpur and Singapore ended up one hour ahead of Bangkok, Jakarta and Hanoi, despite being on roughly the same longitude.
Ironically, the formation of Malaysia once again set apart the peninsula and Borneo states horologically. Image: The Straits Times
Ari Vanuaranu, Yow Hong Chieh
11 July 2020