Federal Territory of Malaysia

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Perdana Putra Building, Putrajaya
Author: JaseMan (Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic)

The Federal Territory of Malaysia comprises Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya and Labuan. These federal territories have the equivalent status to the 13 states, though the territories have neither a head of state nor a state legislature. Of the three, Kuala Lumpur is the Malaysian capital, while Putrajaya is Malaysia's administrative capital. They fall under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of the Federal Territories, which was formed under Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's administration on March 27, 2006. The Minister of the Federal Territories at time of writing (June 2009) is Dato Seri Zulhasnan Rafique. He is the incumbent minister since February 14, 2006.

Kuala Lumpur (8 February, 2006)
© Timothy Tye using this photo

How the Federal Territories were formed

The Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur was born out of the Commission that was created following the Race Riot of may 13, 1969. Kuala Lumpur initially belonged to the state of Selangor. However, during the 1969 elections, the Alliance (predecessor to the present Barisan Nasional) lost its majority in Selangor to the opposition. The opposition mainly received their votes in Kuala Lumpur. This caused feelings of resentment to the ruling party and their supporters as Selangor is the richest state in Malaysia after Singapore left the Federation. The ruling party supporters clashed with opposition supporters during their 'victory' marches. This time BN-UMNO supporters gathered at the Selangor Chief Minister's home at Kampung Baru, Kuala Lumpur and they started getting reckless. Phoney news spread like wild fire which said that the Malays are killed by opposition supporters. Riots spread to the whole of Kuala Lumpur, mainly in Chinese districts (Kuala Lumpur center and business area where Chinese people are working).

Putrajaya (6 June, 2004)
© Timothy Tye using this photo

Many citizens today (2008) believed that this reason is made up after the riots had brought under control blaming opposition victory marches venture into Kampung Baru. While declassified report from British archives stated that the ruling Government (UMNO-BN) leaders were the organisers of the riots as several riots in Kuala Lumpur started simultaneously; unplanned riots tend to start in one location and spread.

Due to the riots and UMNO-BN unwilling to surrender Selangor state, they suspended the Parliament and created Commission rule (Suruhanjaya) for a couple of years. This Commission created Federal Territory and Kuala Lumpur is place under Federal Government rule. Thus this create majority for UMNO-BN Selangor, isolating Kuala Lumpur Chinese citizen who tend to vote for opposition. Until today Kuala Lumpur citizens, regardless of race, still vote for opposition as in the recent 2008 National Election.

Labuan Financial Park
Author: JKT-c (Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported)

The federal territories were originally part of two states - Sabah and Selangor. Both Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya were part of Selangor, while Labuan was part of Sabah. Kuala Lumpur was ceded by the state of Selangor to the federal government on February 1, 1974, while Labuan, which was part of Sabah, became the second federal territory in 1984. Putrajaya became the third federal territory on February 1, 2001.

During the 2006 Sukma Games in Kedah, Kuala Lumpur, Labuan and Putrajaya merged into the unified contingent of Federal Territories.