Pejabat Pos Lama : Old Post Offices (9th Oct 2010)

The Post Office was officially established in England in 1660. Similar Post Offices were established across the British Empire and other countries including Malaysia. In the early 1800s, the postal services started in the Straits Settlements (Penang, Malacca and Singapore) and gradually covered the whole of Malaysia by early 20th century.

A post office is the facility for the posting, receipt, sorting, handling transmission and delivery of mail. All post is transferred from the post office of origination to distribution points called sorting stations, and from there the post was then sent on for delivery to the receiver of post. The Post Master heads each post office.

However, what started as a medium for the transmission of letters and business documents, the postal service has evolved into a one stop services provider. It began to venture into parcel delivery, registrations, insurance service, transaction of money (postal order and money order) and banking services.

From Jabatan Perkhidmatan Pos, Jabatan Pos, in early 1992, Pos Malaysia Berhad began the biggest changes in the history with the grant of business freedom. With freedom comes a greater challenge. Faced with growing competitions, Pos Malaysia Berhad begins its journey of streamlining its operations by segregation of the business into three main Strategic Business Units called PosMel, PosLaju, and PosNiaga.

Today, there are over 703 post offices in Malaysia. This issue highlights some of the existing post office buildings in Malaysia; that is two post offices from each state are presented by stamps valued at 60sen each. Most of the post offices buildings are historical buildings; some were built before Pre-World War II period. The post offices nationwide have different characteristics and architectural styles that are each interesting and unique.