How did the Federation of Malaysia was formed?

The Federation of Malaysia was inaugurated on 16th September 1963 through the signed agreement of the Malaysia Agreement on 9th July 1963 in London by the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and Federation of Malaya, North Borneo, Sarawak and Singapore bearing registration number 10760 at the United Nations. To understand how the Federation of Malaysia was formed, lets start from Article I of the Malaysia Agreement itself as shown below;

Here, the Article I state that the Federation of Malaysia was formed where all partners was federated together. Once all the partners was federated, the colonial status of North Borneo (Sabah), Sarawak and Singapore was change where the sovereignty was transfer to the Federation of Malaysia respectively. Hence, the formation of the Federation of Malaysia was done where the member was federated together to form a new enlarge Federation. However, let us go further into the UN Resolution 1541 as per the Final Conclusion by the Secretary General of the UN itself made on 14th September 1963 on how we can expand our understanding on how exactly the Federation of Malaysia was formed on 16th September 1963. Principle IX state that;

Principle IX

Integration should have come about in the following circum­stances :

(a) The integrating territory should have attained an advanced stage of self-government with free political institutions, so that its peoples would have the capacity to make a responsible choice through informed and democratic processes;

(6) The integration should be the result of the freely ex­pressed wishes of the territory's peoples acting with full knowl­edge of the change in their status, their wishes having been expressed through informed and democratic processes, im­partially conducted and based on universal adult suffrage. The United Nations could, when it deems it necessary, supervise these processes.

Here, in the case of Sarawak and Sabah, we can understand that the formation of the Federation of Malaysia was through the Integration process of the Non-Self-Governing Territory of Sarawak and Sabah with an independent State of the Federation of Malaya. What is Integration? Refer to Principle VI of the UN Resolution 1541;

Principle VI

A Non-Self-Governing Territory can be said to have reached a full measure of self-government by:

(a) Emergence as a sovereign independent State;

(b) Free association with an independent State; or

(c) Integration with an independent State. 

By following the timeline between the signing of the Malaysia Agreement on 9th July 1963 and Final Conclusion of the UN Mission to Sabah and Sarawak on 14th September 1963, we can conclude that the formation of the Federation Malaysia is based on the Final Conclusion of the UN Mission made on 14th September 1963 which overrule or expand the understanding of the formation of the Federation of Malaysia made at the early stage on 9th July 1963.

In conclusion, the Federation of Malaysia was formed where all member was federated together as equal partners and in the case of Sarawak and Sabah, the expanded understanding process is through Integration process as per UN Resolution 1541 made by the UN Mission concluded on 14th September 1963.