Sarawak Day

Sarawak Independence Day (Malay: Hari Kemerdekaan Sarawak)^[1] is a holiday celebrated on 22 July annually by Sarawak, celebrating the establishment of de facto self-government on 22 July 1963.^{[2][3][4][5][6]}

The official Sarawak Independence Day public holiday was gazetted by the government of Sarawak in 2016^[7][8][9] to raise awareness about Sarawak's past and contributions of its past leaders. Despite this official name, there are those who still avoided using this title, calling it the informal “Sarawak Day” instead, due to lack of awareness of its legality (“Sarawak Independence Day” is in fact the official government gazetted name),^[8] while some still argue about its historical accuracy, citing British legislation did not provide for an official, full independence.^[10] Nonetheless, there was indeed a degree of de facto independence in the form of self-government ahead of it taking part in the founding^[11] of a new federation in the form of Malaysia with other partners.

The idea of a Sarawakian holiday was mooted by the Sarawak state government and citizens since 2012, after public discontent about the public holiday Hari Merdeka being too Malaya-centric.^[12][13][14] The day was officially named Sarawak Independence Day and declared as a public holiday for the first time in 2016.^[15] Although there have been persistent attempts to falsify the historical record for political purposes, it is incontrovertible that Sarawak as a British crown colony achieved independence on 16 September 1963 as a member state of the Malaysian Federation under the Malaysia legislation passed by the sovereign United Kingdom and Malayan Parliaments in July 1963.^[16]