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Kota Kinabalu: “The federal Minister from Kota Belud must have forgotten his roots as a Sabahan and do not understand the history and basis of the formation of Malaysia that Sabah and Sarawak did not join as the 12th and 13th States of Malaya. It may be understandable if he meant to please his Umno bosses in Putrajaya or intends to migrate to the Malaya after his stint as federal Minister” said Datuk Dr. Jeffrey Kitingan, STAR Sabah Chief, commenting on the Minister’s statement that Sabah is 1 of 13 States in Malaysia.
If the intention was for Sabah and Sarawak to join as the 12th and 13th States of Malaya or Malaysia, there would have been no necessity to have the Cobbold Commission, the Inter-Governmental Committee, the MSCC or even the Malaysia Agreement. All it needed was for Sabah and Sarawak to accept the terms and conditions of Federation of Malaya Agreement and they would have been equal to Perlis, which Sabah is 90 times its size, or to any of the other 11 States in Malaya.
Our founding father, Tun Fuad, specifically stated that Sabah would not join as the 12th State of Malaya and warned that it that was the case, it would merely be turning Sabah into a Malayan colony and hand over to Malaya and that Malayans would be the new expatriates or colonial masters.
The ultimate objective of the British as reported by AJ Stockwell in the British Document, “The End of An Empire”, at page xxxvii was “… our ultimate objective is a confederation between the 5 present Territories of the Federation of Malaya, Singapore, Sarawak, North Borneo and Brunei.
”Right from the outset, Malaysia was to be a new nation and a partnership not a takeover. Lord Cobbold, chairman of the Cobbold Commission had this to say:
“It is a necessary condition that from the outset, Malaysia should be regarded by all concerned, as an association of partners combining in the common to create a new nation but retaining their own individualities"
“If any idea was to take root that Malaysia would involve a ‘take over’ of the Borneo territories by the Federation of Malaya and the submersion of the individualities of North Borneo and Sarawak, Malaysia would not, in my judgment, be generally acceptable or successful.”
Malaysia was to be a family of nations as clearly spelt out in Schedule F of the IGC Report that Malaysia was:-
“An association of several Sovereign States with a central organ vested with powers directly over the citizens of the member State and in certain defined circumstances over the member States themselves. There would be a Central Government and also State Governments, but from the view point of international law, the collection of States forming the Federation would be recognized as one Sovereign State within a family of nations.”
Even the first recital of the Proclamation of Malaysia clearly states that Sabah, Sarawak and Singapore shall be federated with the Federation of Malaya.
From the beginning it seems to be the intention of a takeover of Sabah and Sarawak with the Malaysia Agreement being drafted between the British and Malaya without Sabah and Sarawak. There were no discussion whatsoever of an expansion of Malaya and then re-named as Malaysia, yet, this was what was done by Malaya behind Sabah and Sarawak’s back.
“How is it that Sabah is now 1 of the 13 States of Malaya equal to the other 11 states in Malaya?”
“Why the federal government unilaterally amend the Federal Constitution with effect from 26 August 1976 to make Sabah and Sarawak the 12th and 13th States?” asked Dr. Jeffrey.
Perhaps, the federal Minister should consult his political masters and Umno leaders, “how and why has Sabah been turned into the 12th State of Malaya disguising as Malaysia when Sabah never joined or Malaysia as the 12th State?”
If the federal Minister is truly a Sabahan at heart and has a conscience, he should be asking the federal government and Malayan leaders to review the Malaysia Agreement so that the past mistakes can be rectified.
The federal Minister should know by now from the people in his own constituency and throughout Sabah that only by restoring Sabah and Sarawak as equal partners to Malaya can Malaysia be saved from breaking up and disintegrating.
