The Federation of Malaya (referred to as Persekutuan Tanah Melayu in Malay language) consist of 9 Malay states and 2 British Straits Settlement States within the peninsula. Both Penang and Malacca were under British colonial rule from the period 31st January 1948 - 16 September 1963, while the 9 Malay states were protectorates of the United Kingdom.
The Malayan federation lead by the chief minister Tunku Abdul Rahman achieved independence within the Commonwealth of Nations on 31 August 1957 and Tunku then became the first prime minister of Malaysia. The federation later reconstitued to include 3 other regional British territories, that is Singapore, Sarawak and British North Borneo (renamed as Sabah), forming the constituition of MALAYSIA in 1963. Singapore later left the Malaysian Constituition and became an independent republic on 9 August 1963.
The Introduction Of Malaysia's Official Currency
Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) was established in 1959 as the national bank for Malaysia and empowered to control Malaysia's treasury currency production. But the previous Board of Commissioner of Currency Malaya & British Borneo still remained as the official legal tender notes for about 8 years before Malaysia's own currency unit was introduced.1967 with the initiation of the Ringgit (dollar) and Sen (cent). The exchange value for One Ringgit (Rm1) was then equivalent to 0.290299 gram of gold.
