Sabah (Malaysia)

Negeri Sabah "di Bawah Bayu", State of Sabah "Land beneath the Wind"

Last modified: 2001-09-14 by santiago dotor
Keywords: sabah | negeri sabah di bawah bayu | canton (blue) | canton (green) | mountain: kinabalu | blue: 3 shades | czech-like flag | kota kinabalu |
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from the InfoSabah Website

• Description
• Historical Flags:
  • British North Borneo 1881-1963
  • Flag 1963-1981
  • Flag 1982-1988
• Political Parties (Sabah)
• City of Kota Kinabalu

See also:

• Federal Territory of Labuan
• British Straits Settlements
• Subnational Flags (Malaysia)
• Malaysia

Other sites:

• The Meaning of the Flag of Sabah at the Infosabah Website
• Sabah State Coat-of-Arms at the Infosabah Website
• Historical Coats-of-Arms and Flags at the Sabah Government Official Website

This flag was adopted on 16 September 1988. It is red, white and three different shades of blue. The mountain is in the canton as in the 1963 flag, but now in dark blue on a light blue background. The field is medium blue over white over red.

Jan Oskar Engene, 11 April 1996

The mountain on the flag (and coat-of-arms) is Mount Kinabalu (4101 m).

Herman De Wael, 6 April 1997

The Malaysian state of Sabah has not least than three different official shades of blue on its flag. I read the official description found in the Second Schedule (Article 42A) of the Constitution of the State of Sabah (article inserted with the Enactment to amend the Constitution of the State of Sabah n°12 of 1988):

The state Flag is in a rectangular shape and is in the proportion of 1:2. The canton which extends at the head half way to the fly and 2/3 at the hoist to the foot is in Icicle Blue (CIT9) as the background to a graphic silhouette of Mount Kinabala which is in Royal Blue (B10) positioned ar 1/4 of the height of the canton from end to end). The fly of the flag is divided equally into three bands of colours the foot division of which extends right to the hoist. The top band is in Zircon Blue (C5T5) the second band is in white and the third band is in Chilli Red (S6R4).

In this flag, Zircon Blue symbolises peace and tranquility, White symbolizes purity and justice, Chilli Red symbolizes courage and conviction, Icicle Blue symbolises unity and prosperity and Royal Blue symbolizes strength and co-operation.

The five colours of the flag represent the five Divisions in the State. The silhouette shape of Mount Kinabala symbolizes the State of Sabah.

Pascal Vagnat, 7 May 1999

The image at the InfoSabah Website shows the form of Mt. Kinabalu as a table mountain (slanting), which agrees with the image in Znamierowski 1999.

Jarig Bakker, 3 January 2000

Confirmed from Album des Pavillons 1990 and Dorling-Kindersley 1997. The latter has all the blue shades much darker than in Album des Pavillons 1990 and the image found by Jarig Bakker in the InfoSabah Website.

Ivan Sache, 3 January 2000

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by Zeljko Heimer

On August 31st 1963 Sabah adopted a four striped flag, red over white over yellow over blue, and a green canton with a brown mountain.

Zeljko Heimer, 6 April 1996

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by Mark Sensen

In Vexilla Nostra no. 166 I found that in between the 1963 flag and the 1988 (current) flag another flag was used, adopted January 1st 1982. It was a completely different design: blue over white with a red triangle on the hoist. It looked very much like the flag used by Sarawak (the other Malaysian state on Borneo) until August 31st 1988, which was red over white with a blue triangle on the hoist.

Mark Sensen, 24 April 1996

News in the Daily Express (Independent National Newspaper of East Malaysia), Kota Kinabalu, Saturday, 22nd January, 2000:

[Mount] Kinabalu figures prominently in KK [Kota Kinabalu] city flag

Kota Kinabalu: State officials have decided that South-East Asia's highest mountain should be the image to represent Sabah's capital, which is due to be proclaimed a city on Feb 2. The 4,095-metre high Mt Kinabalu is prominent in the new Kota Kinabalu city flag that would be raised by Chief Minister Datuk Osu Sukam at the stroke of midnight on Feb 1 at the Padang Merdeka here.

A state official said blue, red and yellow stripes also appear on the new city flag.

After it was announced last year that Kota Kinabalu was due to achieve city status, one of the immediate questions raised by various groups was the appropriate image to represent the state capital.

The city flag-raising ceremony would be preceded by the city status proclamation ceremony at the Istana Negri, State Local Government and Housing Minister Datuk Yahaya Hussin said. (...)

Jordi Pérez, 11 April 2001