East Malaysia, also known as Sabah and Sarawak (Sabah dan Sarawak) or Malaysian Borneo, is the part of Malaysia located on the island of Borneo. It consists of the Malaysian states of Sabah and Sarawak, and the Federal Territory ofLabuan. It lies to the east from Peninsular Malaysia (West Malaysia), which is located on the Malay Peninsula. The two are separated by the South China Sea.While East Malaysia is less populated and less developed than West Malaysia, its land mass is larger and it has notably more natural resources, chiefly oil and gas reserves.
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Both Sabah (formerly British North Borneo) and Sarawak were separate British colonies from Malaya, and did not become part of theFederation of Malaya in 1957. However, both voted to become part of the new Federation of Malaysia along with the Federation of Malaya and Singapore in 1963. Previously, there were efforts to unite Brunei, Sabah and Sarawak under the North Borneo Federationbut that failed after the Brunei Revolt occurred.
