Malaysian Standard Time (MST;, WPM) or Malaysian Time (MYT) is the standard time used in Malaysia. It is 8 hours ahead of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). Malaysia does not observe daylight saving time.

History

The local mean time in Kuala Lumpur was originally GMT+06:46:46. Peninsular Malaysia used this local mean time until 1 January 1901, when they changed to Singapore mean time GMT+06:55:25; this changed to GMT+07:00 in 1905. Between the end of the Second World War and the formation of Malaysia on 16 September 1963, it was known as British Malayan Standard Time, which was GMT+07:30. At 2330 hrs local time of 31 December 1981, people in Peninsular Malaysia adjusted their clocks and watches ahead by 30 minutes to become 00:00 hours local time of 1 January 1982, to match the time used in East Malaysia, which is UTC+08:00. Singapore Standard Time followed suit and has continued to use the same time as Malaysia.

Time in Peninsular Malaysia

Time in East Malaysia

Standardisation of time in Malaysia

Prime Minister of Malaysia Mahathir Mohamad declared that people in Peninsular Malaysia would adjust their clocks ahead by 30 minutes to match the time in use in East Malaysia (UTC+08:00) on 31 December 1981.

Timekeeper

On 1 January 1990, the Malaysian Cabinet appointed the National Metrology Laboratory (Sirim) as the official timekeeper of Malaysia. It propagates coordinated universal time plus 8 hours. This timescale is derived from five atomic clocks maintained by Sirim and is always within 0.9 seconds of the legal time.

IANA time zone database

The IANA time zone database contains two zones for Malaysia in the file zone.tab: