An innocuous tweet from a Malaysian minister last week has reignited a long-standing debate over whether the Southeast Asian country is in the right time zone.
In 1982, Peninsular Malaysia, the western part of the country, moved its clocks forward by 30 minutes to align its time zone with the states of Sabah and Sarawak on the island of Borneo.
The change ordered by then-Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad was presented as a nation-building and modernization step that would bring the entire country together.
But this also means that the sun usually rises around 7 am in Peninsular Malaysia, about an hour later than in East Malaysia.
Some parents complain that they only have 30 minutes before school starts at 7:30 a.m., leaving little time for children to eat breakfast or get to school during daylight hours.
This also means that the sun sets relatively early, so many Malaysians are still at work or traveling when it is already dark and eat dinner long after sunset.
Decades old debate started again
Malaysia’s Minister for Investment, Trade and Industry Tengku Zafarul Aziz was visiting Sabah’s capital, Kota Kinabalu, when, after his usual morning run, he commented on social media about the joy of a morning walk.
“Here, the sunrise is early, so I can start running at 6:00 a.m. before my first event at 8:30 a.m. this Sunday!” Aziz wrote on X.
What was supposed to be a lighthearted post about healthy living reignited a decades-old debate.
Many social media users have called on the government to turn the clocks back one hour in Peninsular Malaysia, where most of the country’s population lives.
Malaysian newspapers have published numerous articles on this question, and morning talk shows have invited experts to weigh in.
“I was recently [Philippines’ capital] “In Manila for a business trip, and it was nice to have a few hours of sunshine before going to the office,” Mohammed Rahman, who works at a major bank in Kuala Lumpur, told DW.
Siti Abdullah, a mother of two in Georgetown, northwest Malaysia, said she had no knowledge of the science, but “many people here think the change in time zones will be good for our health. It will definitely help with the school run.”
Some medical experts who spoke to DW said there is little solid scientific evidence to support those claims, although the topic has clearly become a topic of national discussion.
It also reached Parliament last year, although then-Minister for Investment, Trade and Industry Liew Chin Tong responded that any zone change would have a “significant impact on the economy” and said the government was not considering the change.
History of changing clocks
During World War II both Singapore and Malaysia were forced to switch to GMT+9 on the orders of their Japanese occupiers, who wanted the territories to follow Tokyo Time.
After the war, Peninsular Malaysia adopted UTC+7:30, before switching again to GMT+8 on January 1, 1982, the halfway point between its earlier time and wartime clocks.
Due to this, Malaysia’s capital Kuala Lumpur has reached an unusual situation. It is located on the same longitude as Thailand’s capital Bangkok and Indonesia’s capital Jakarta, yet operates an hour ahead of both cities. Also, it shares a time zone with the Philippine capital, Manila, which is located about 2,500 kilometers to the east.
Singapore, located at the southern tip of Peninsular Malaysia, followed Kuala Lumpur’s lead in 1982 and moved to GMT+8 “to avoid inconvenience to businesses and travelers”, according to the government at the time.
According to some critics, the lack of early morning sun and early sunset disrupts Malaysians’ circadian rhythm, which is a 24-hour cycle of physical, mental and behavioral changes controlled by light and darkness.
However, experts are skeptical.
Mahadir Ahmad, a senior lecturer and clinical psychologist at the National University of Malaysia, told DW that he does not believe the one-hour difference is enough to cause widespread health problems, noting that there is no strong evidence from field studies to support this claim.
“It is more important to maintain the sleep-wake cycle (circadian rhythm), and as long as our sleep routine does not suppress melatonin production, we can sleep and wake up based on the day and night cycle,” he said.
“Existing evidence suggests that sleep loss and circadian misalignment can lead to disturbances in cognitive performance and mood,” he said.
Nurul Aqila Hasan Ashari, a clinical dietitian, pointed out that many other Southeast Asian countries that follow the “true” time zone have worse health indicators than Malaysia, and that social behaviors such as diet, exercise and work hours are much more important than the exact time the sun rises or sets.
For now, scientists say Malaysia’s health challenges appear to be driven more by lifestyle than by its position on the world time zone map.
An ASEAN Time?
In parallel, there are equally loud calls for Malaysia to remain on GMT+8 and the rest of Southeast Asia to follow suit, albeit for economic rather than health reasons.
In January, Abdul Wahid Omar, chairman of Bursa Malaysia, the country’s stock exchange, argued that the entire Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) region should adopt a common time zone, which, conveniently for Malaysia, should be GMT+8.
He told a business forum earlier this year that it would “unify ASEAN as a compelling economic bloc” and align the region with China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.
Singapore, which is also on GMT+8, has publicly supported the idea. It was first proposed in 1995 by the city-state’s then-premier, Goh Chok Tong, resurfaced in 2006 and again in 2015, when Malaysia last held the ASEAN chairmanship.
Adopting a single time zone would require major changes. Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam would have to move to GMT+7, although Bangkok and Hanoi have already floated the idea.
Myanmar, which is currently on GMT+6:30, will have to move its clocks forward by one and a half hours.
Indonesia will have to face the biggest challenge. The vast archipelago straddles three time zones – GMT+7, GMT+8 and GMT+9, although the island of Java, where most of its major cities are located, follows GMT+7.
There have been repeated discussions since 2012 about unifying the country under a GMT+8 time zone, but the proposal has been repeatedly postponed and never implemented.
For now, Southeast Asia is roughly split between GMT+7 and GMT+8, with Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore leading the way.
Whether the joy of a minister’s morning walk is enough to change the situation in the area remains an open question.
Edited by: Srinivas Majumdaru