The flag, first raised on 16 September 1963, originated from the flag of the Federation of Malaya. Prior to the creation of the national flag, each state in Malaya had its own flag, many of which are unchanged in design to this day.
The design of the flag is based on those of two existing flags, the flag of Majapahit and the flag of Johor, where the stripes from the flag of Majapahit were incorporated together with the canton containing the crescent and star from the flag of Johor.
As the flag was finalized for official use, the significance of the design were given as follows:
red, white and blue – represents Malaysia as a country belonging in the Commonwealth.
crescent and star – represents Islam as the official religion for the Federation, as yellow symbolizes sovereignty of the Malay Rulers and their roles as leader of the faith in the constituent states. The eleven-pointed star itself symbolizes the “unity and co-operation” of said member states.
The Malayan flag was designed by Mohamed Hamzah, a 29-year-old architect working for the Public Works Department (JKR) in Johor Baharu, Johore. He entered the Malayan flag design competition in 1947 with two designs that he completed within two weeks. The first design was a green flag with blue kris in the middle, surrounded by 15 white stars. The second design, which was among the three finalists, was similar to the current flag but with a five-pointed star. It borrows major design elements from the Flag of the East India Company, notably the red and white stripes. The competition attracted 373 entries and voting was made by the general public via post. Malayan senior statesman Dato’ Onn Jaafar met with Mohamed Hamzah after he won the competition and suggested that the star be changed to an 11-pointed one to represent all the Malayan states.
Mohamed Hamzah died just short of his 75th birthday on 13 February 1993 in Jalan Stulang Baru, Kampung Melayu Majidee, Johor.
Three additional stripes were added to the existing flag and the star was given 14 points to reflect the federation of the original 11 states in Malaya plus Sabah, Sarawak, and Singapore; the design remained the same even after Singapore’s expulsion from the federation two years later. When Kuala Lumpur was designated a Federal Territory on 1 February 1974, the additional stripe and the point in the star were appropriated to represent this new addition to the federation. Eventually, with the addition of two other federal territories, Labuan in 1984 and Putrajaya in 2001, the fourteenth stripe and point in the star came to be associated with the federal government in general.