Why the time in Kuala Lumpur and Singapore is now not correct?

Filed under KL Info by on #

If I ask you ‘What is the exact time in Kuala Lumpur or Singapore now? I bet that you’ll take a look at your watch or mobile phone to tell me the answer. Or maybe you just to Google and type ‘Kuala Lumpur time’ in the search box and click the search button to know the answer.

But did you know that the actual timeĀ  is maybe a bit different from your answer? And why? For the elderly they probably already know the answer. However I don’t ask you to get worried about this time deviation but just to let you know the fact.

The 30 minutes earlier Kuala Lumpur Time

The 30 minutes earlier Kuala Lumpur Time

In 1963, Singapore, Sarawak, Sabah joined Malaya to form what is now called Malaysia but The Singapore is no longer in Malaysia today since 1965. The West Malaysia (Peninsular Malaysia) and East Malaysia are actually located in a bit different time zone.

We know that The Sun rises from the East thus making the time in Sarawak and Sabah (due to their location) earlier around 30 minutes. So, if the time in East Malaysia is 6.30 pm the actual time in West Malaysia is 6.00 pm.

The story changed when Dr. Mahathir Mohamad became the fourth Prime Minister of Malaysia. One of the first things he did was to synchronize or standardize the West and East Malaysia time. Now if you are in Kuala Lumpur and telling me that the time in this city is 7.00 pm, that is actually the exact time in Sabah and Sarawak. That means we in West Malaysia and Singapore are using East Malaysia’s time thus we are 30 minutes in front of our fellow friends there (just kidding).

Whatever we do, The Sun still rises and set like usual and we cannot change that. The day still changes to dark around 6.30 pm in Sabah and the same also happens 30 minutes later in West Malaysia and Singapore.

It doesn’t matter actually about this actual time, I was born in 1979 and to me I used to it when I was growing up and didn’t even notice about this before.

If you live or staying in a big country like United States (America), Canada or China, you may not wonder about this fact I think.


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