Wilayah Persekutuan (Federal Territories of Malaysia) #6 (1986)

Wilayah Persekutuan - Scott #6 (1986) — Wilayah Persekutuan – Scott #6 (1986)

Wilayah Persetutuan is Malay for “Federal Territories”, thus stamps inscribed as such are for use in the Federal Territories in Malaysia which comprise three Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya and Labuan, governed directly by the federal government of Malaysia. Kuala Lumpur is the national capital of Malaysia, Putrajaya is the administrative capital, and Labuan is an offshore international financial center. Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya are enclaves in the state of Selangor, while Labuan is an island off the coast of Sabah. Stamps were first issued for use in the Federal Territories in 1979 but had no specific inscription identifying as such but is the same design as that of the 1979 releases from the individual Malaysian states. The first stamps to be inscribed Wilayah Persekutuan were released in 1986.

The territories fall under the jurisdiction of the Ministry for the Federal Territories, which was formed under Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s administration on March 27, 2006. The first Minister for the Federal Territories was Mohd. Isa Abdul Samad. Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor has been the minister since May 2013.

The federal territories were originally part of two states — Selangor and Sabah. Both Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya were part of Selangor, while Labuan was part of Sabah.

Kuala Lumpur, the state capital of Selangor, became the national capital of the Federation of Malaya (and later Malaysia) in 1948. Since independence in 1957, the federal as well as the Selangor state ruling party had been the Alliance (later the Barisan Nasional). However, in the 1969 elections the Alliance, while retaining control of the federal government, lost its majority in Selangor to the opposition. The same election also resulted in a major race riot in Kuala Lumpur.

It was realized that if Kuala Lumpur remained part of Selangor, clashes between the federal and the Selangor state government might arise when they are controlled by different parties. The solution was to separate Kuala Lumpur from the state and place it under direct federal rule. On February 1, 1974, the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur Agreement was signed, and Kuala Lumpur became the first federal territory of Malaysia.

The cession of Kuala Lumpur had the effect of securing the Selangor state government for the Barisan Nasional until the 2008 general election. The separation of Kuala Lumpur meant that Kuala Lumpur voters lost representation in the Selangor State Legislative Assembly and could only vote for representation in the Parliament of Malaysia.

Labuan, an island off coast of mainland Sabah, was chosen by the federal government for development into an offshore financial center. Labuan became the second federal territory in 1984.

Putrajaya is a planned city, designed to replace Kuala Lumpur as the seat of the federal government. Sultan Salahuddin, who was serving as the Yang di-Pertuan Agong at that time, was asked again to cede land to the federal government. Putrajaya became the third federal territory on February 1, 2001.

In the recent years, efforts were made to forge a common identity for the three federal territories. A flag of Federal Territory was introduced to represent the federal territories as a whole. During the 2006 Sukma Games in Kedah, Kuala Lumpur, Labuan and Putrajaya merged into the unified contingent of Federal Territories.

The official anthem of the territories is “Maju dan Sejahtera”, which means “Progress and Prosperity”. Apart from the flag of Federal Territories, each federal territory has its own flag.

Individual Malaysian stamps had been issuing their own stamps since 1965. The low values were identical for each state, except for the state name, state crest and ruler, or state crest only for those states without a ruler. The stamps released in 1986 were printed in five-color lithography, cyan, yellow, magenta and black with grey for highlighting various areas and a browny-grey shade for the background panel. They were printed on phosphorised ‘Multiple SPM’ paper with a wavy pattern, in sheets of 100, 10 by 10 and had pink gum and were perforated 12 by 12 . The low and medium values were printed by ‘Security Printers Malaysia’ in Petaling Jaya, near Kuala Lumpur. The four high values were printed by Harrison & Sons in the United Kingdom. The low values had plate numbers, one for each colour used for printing, in the top left, top right, bottom left and bottom right of each sheet, in the format 1A, 1A 1A etc., with colour dabs above or below each series of plate numbers.

The seven values issued for each state in 1986 were 1 cent, 2 cents, 5 cents, 10 cents, 15 cents, 20 cents and 30 cents: