ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the second type of challenge to the nationalisation of independence remembrance, namely the regional contestation of the new nation-state. It discusses a number of cases that demonstrate how post-colonial governments and other actors have dealt with these challenges. The chapter explores the role that the replication as well as rotation of the annual Independence Day celebrations played in synchronising citizens' memories and suffusing the entire national territory and population with a sense of belonging to a single national community. Nation-building involves the creation of a mnemonic community that is united by an imaginary of the national territory permeated by a shared history, rooted in the 'birth' of the nation-state and culminating in a promising future. The constitutional adjustments and persistent ambiguities that came with the incorporation of Sabah and Sarawak into the new Federation of Malaysia have encouraged the central government's directness in telling its people how to remember both independence and the formation of Malaysia.
