Malaysia faces renewed calls to rewind the clock

40 years after shift, some claim being in ‘wrong time zone’ poses health risk

- Hadi Azmi Malaysia Correspondent

A lighthearted post on social media platform X by a Malaysia minister on a morning run in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, has revived debate over whether Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore are in the wrong time zone, which some claim poses a health risk to more than 36 million people.

While Kuala Lumpur and Singapore sit on similar longitudes as Bangkok and Jakarta, both operate an hour ahead, sharing the same time zone as Manila even though the Philippine capital lies about 2,500km to the east.

The mismatch means the sun rises at around 7am in Peninsular Malaysia, compared with about 5.30am in Jakarta and 6am in Manila, where the time zones are more closely aligned with their geographical longitudes.

Sunrise in Sabah and Sarawak is between 6am and 6.30am, even though the eastern states share the same time zone as the rest of Malaysia.

People in Peninsular Malaysia get only two hours of morning light before the 9am workday begins, while school starts at 7.30am - barely half an hour after sunrise.

Minister of Investment, Trade and Industry Tengku Zafrul Aziz, an avid runner, recently remarked on this phenomenon, saying that because the sun rises early in Kota Kinabalu, he was able to go for a run ahead of his 8.30am event.

“| bumped into many KK runners today! Power! Let’s continue to practise a healthy lifestyle,” he said ina Nov 9 post on X.

His post was peppered with replies calling for Peninsular Malaysia to be “brought back to GMT+7” — the time zone used in Thailand and west Indonesia.