"The
absence of Singapore has directly resulted in the constitutional
treaty, which included the constitutions of Sabah and Sarawak in the
Federation of Malaysia, being invalid." -- Joseph Wilfred Lakai, Free Malaysia Today
I have always held the view that Peninsular Malaysia's
continuing annexation of Sabah is constitutionally wrong even by 1963
Malaysia Federation constitution standard. Malaysia's treatment of its
historical facts has always been to my mind filled with a lot of
half-truths. Malaysians -- and worse their leaders, continue to deceive
their own people by teaching their children that MALAYSIA gained
independence from the British in 1957 which is an utter lie.
THE INALIENABLE TRUTH: MALAYSIA FEDERATION
was born on 16 September 1963. So how could a nation which was not even
born gain independence? How could Malaysia say that they gained their
independence from the British when the British had technically not ruled
the Peninsula since 1957, the year the British gave the Malayans 'their
independence on a whether you like it or not basis'? In fact, the
Malayans did not want to be independent because they feared that if left
alone they would not be able to compete with the Chinese population of
Malaya. The inalienable truth is lies have always been the basis of
existence of Malaysia.
FIRSTLY, Sabah
which was a separate entity that was under direct British colonial
control received independence from their British colonialists on 31st
August 1963 and for FIFTEEN DAYS was technically truly INDEPENDENT.
However on 16 September 1963, it was annexed to a new political entity
whose new constitution was not even formally framed yet: the MALAYSIA
Federation (the letter 'S' in the new name stood for Singapore, Sarawak
and Sabah.)
SECONDLY, the
referendum was a sham! During the fifteen days when Sabah was supposed
to be technically independent of their British colonizers, we were, and
are still being made to believe that the idea of a 1963 referendum to
determine if Sabahans agree for their infant nation, i.e., Sabah, to
join a new Malaysia Federation that was in the making, was presented to
the people of Sabah; that debates on the referendum were organised, that
colloques were held, that political discussions across massive and
greatly rural Sabah and among Sabahans took place; that voting was held;
that counting was done, and finally, that it was determined that
Sabahans indeed had decided, etc., -- AND that all of these activities
that would decide the fate of an infant so-called independent nation
took place in a matter of fifteen days. Hogwash!
We
all know that Tunku Abdul Rahman, the Malayan who was leading the
Malayans at the time, distributed a few leaflets about the referendum,
talked to a few Sabahan leaders, promised them a lot of good things and
then instructed them to do things to ensure that the referendum would be
for an "Aye!" vote.
NOTE THIS: "The
response from Sabah and Sarawak was not on par with that from Singapore
and the initial response from Brunei, since both territories feared
losing authority in the administration of their governments. Apart from
this, the non-Malays feared that the Malays in Sabah and Sarawak would
be even more dominant should the merger take place. To allay their
fears, Tunku Abdul Rahman went to these territories in June 1961 and set
up the Malaysia Solidarity Consultative Committee (MSCC) to inform the
people of the benefits of the merger." Federation of Malaysia pdf
document "
The
group that was was tasked with overseeing that the people of Sabah
supported the proposal for Sabah to become a federated member of the NEW
Malaysia Federation was the Cobbold Commission which was also
"responsible for the subsequent drafting of the Constitution of Malaysia
prior to the formation of Malaysia on 16 September 1963."
The
members of the Commission were (in picture): Lord Cobbold, former
Governor of the Bank of England, chairman of the Commission, Wong Pow
Nee, Chief Minister of Penang, Mohammed Ghazali Shafie, Permanent
Secretary to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Anthony Abell, former
Governor of Sarawak, David Watherston, former Chief Secretary of Malaya.
Notice anything? There was NO SABAHAN member of the Commission.
What
is surprising is that the Cobbold Commission report did not
specifically address the concerns of the people but instead reported on
generalities that tended to address the MALAYA desiderata, i.e., Kuala
Lumpur leaders! Many Sabahans later on insisted that they had not even
been allowed to vote. It is believed that many Sabahans, given the
prevailing conditions for travelling at the time -- Sabah being rural
with not many communication infrastructures in place, hence
communication lines were hardly available, were not even aware that a
referendum to decide on their fate was being organised!
Here's a Wiki entry on the Commission's report :
The Commission found that 'About one third of the population of each
territory [i.e. of North Borneo and of Sarawak] strongly favours early
realisation of Malaysia without too much concern over terms and
conditions. Another third, many of them favourable to the Malaysia
project, ask, with varying degrees of emphasis, for conditions and
safeguards... The remaining third is divided between those who insist
upon independence before Malaysia is considered and those who would
strongly prefer to see British rule continue for some years to come'
[12].
THIRDLY, it's
all about the NEW federation's Constitution if you think about it!
Alright... So let's say the Sabah referendum took place and let's
further say that the results favoured joining a new political entity
called the new Malaysia Federation. Let's accept that Sabah finally
joined the new entity and that by virtue of Sabah's joining OLD Malaya,
along with Sarawak and Singapore, the new Malaysia Federation was born
on 16 September 1963 (instead of 31 August 1963 because Indonesia was
protesting the inclusion of Sarawak.)
The
problem with the new federation (MALAYSIA) is that it was created on
the basis of the Constitution of the OLD Federation of Malaya States
(which was actually a federation of Malaya sultanates found in today's
West Malaysia) which was still in vigour. This is so because
technically, a Constitution for the New Malaysia Federation was not yet
finished although mind you it was being rushed by the Cobbold
Commission. So there was a hiccup. But never mind, let's accept that
they rushed the inking of the new Constitution (as opposed to the old
1957 Malaya federation constitution involving only the Malaya
states/sultanates http://en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/ Constitution_of_Malaysia);
it was finally drafted and contained a clear provision that NAMED ALL
the new members: old [federation of] Malaya states, Sarawak, Singapore
and Sabah.
Now,
on the birth of the NEW Malaysia Federation: On 9 July 1963, the
Governments of the Federation of Malaya, United Kingdom, North Borneo,
Sarawak and Singapore signed the Malaysia Agreement 175 whereby
Singapore, Sarawak and North Borneo would federate with the existing
States of the Federation of [the old] Malaya and the new federation so
established would be called MALAYSIA FEDERATION. The Federal Parliament
then passed the Malaysia Act 176 to amend Art. 1 of the Federal
Constitution "to provide, inter alia, for the admission of the three new
States and for the renaming of the Federation as Malaysia. The Act
received the Royal assent on 26 August and was to come into force on 16
September 1963."
The
proviso in the NEW Malaysia Constitution left no room for doubt that
the new Federation of Malaysia held on the basis of the union of FOUR
independent states namely MALAYA (old Malaya union or old federation of
Malaya states/sultanates), SARAWAK, SINGAPORE, and finally, SABAH.
But
Singapore's chief minister Lee Kuan Yew was not happy with the status
quo. He opposed the federal policies of affirmative action, which
granted special privileges to Malays guaranteed under Article 153 of the
Constitution of Malaysia. On 9th August 1965, after racial riots,
Malaysian Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman expelled Singapore from the
new Malaysia federation. (See http://en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/ History_of_the_Republic_of_ Singapore.)
THEREFORE, when
Singapore exited on 9th August 1965 from the newly formed "Malaysia
Federation" whose newly framed Constitution specified that the
Federation held based on the provision that the new Malaysia Federation
held IF all 4 states were together, Singapore's expulsion rendered the
existence of the new federation null and void.
NOTE THIS FROM A SABAH WRITER: "The
absence of Singapore has directly resulted in the constitutional
treaty, which included the constitutions of Sabah and Sarawak in the
Federation of Malaysia, being invalid." Read: S’pore’s exit nullified Malaysia Agreement September 26, 2011
The Malaysia Agreement combined with the various related documents including the Bill of Malaysia, is now called the Malaysia Act 1963.
All these documents also included entry requirements and the constitutional reference to Sabah and Sarawak to form Malaysia.
Agreement illegalThe Malaysia Agreement also required all partners to be signatories before a final decision was made.
The intention of including all four signatories was to ensure they were in full knowledge of the agreement between the Federation of Malaya and the sovereign states of Sabah, Sarawak and Singapore when forming Malaysia.
Therefore, Malaysia has been described by various parties as a coalition of partners coming together to form a unified new country and with many of its respective sovereign features included.
When Singapore was removed from the Malaysian Federation in 1965, questions arose and continued to persist as to what had happened to the Malaysia Agreement signed by all parties in 1963.
The absence of Singapore has directly resulted in the constitutional treaty, which included the constitutions of Sabah and Sarawak in the Federation of Malaysia, being invalid.
The Malaysia Agreement is now neither valid nor legal in that the Federation of Malaysia is now an illegal entity because of the removal of Singapore which was one of the signatories to the agreement, which led to the origin of the federation itself.
In
this context, it is only common sense that the continuing annexation of
Sabah to a federation that does not constitutionally hold even by the
new Malaysia Federation standard cannot be legal. In essence, the
continuing annexation of Sabah by today's Peninsular Malaysia is not
only illegal, it is also morally wrong. To validate the federation, a
NEW REFERENDUM must be held. But Kuala Lumpur has not done it. We can
only wonder why...
So
why is Malaysia continuing to illegally annex Sabah? If Malaysia wants
to legalise their hold on Sabah, it is only fair that a new referendum
to ask the people of Sabah must be held. But Malaysia cannot continue to
use underhanded tactics, and make the world think that their
fantasmagorical historical fantasies are real!
By Anne de Bretagne
For the Philippine Sabah Claim Forum
28 May 2012
Addendum: In All Good Muslims must ask for Najib's tongue to be cut off for lying 14 April 2013
Addendum: In All Good Muslims must ask for Najib's tongue to be cut off for lying 14 April 2013
Even Harvard-educated Jeffrey G Kitingan, a native of Sabah, leader and politician, had already disputed Najib's claim about "referendum" in Sabah and insisted that there was no referendum as such in 1962.
In fact, Jeffrey Kitingan said that "Any talks between Malaysia and the Philippines must include Sabah because only the people of Sabah can decide what they want."
A report by Luke Rintod for the Free Malaysia Today:
KOTA KINABALU: United Borneo Front (UBF) chairman Jeffrey Kitingan has disputed the context of the 1962 referendum which academics and Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak claim confirmed Sabahans’ desire to be part of Malaysia.
“There has never been a referendum on Sabah as stated by some academics.
“In fact, the so-called referendum in 1962-63 was actually only a sampling survey of less than four percent of the Sabah population,” he said in response to Najib’s comments on Sabah yesterday.
RECOMMENDED READING:
Fifteen Days of Independence
Singapore's exit nullified Malaysia Agreement
All Good Muslims must ask for Najib's tongue to be cut off for lying
Singapore's exit nullified Malaysia Agreement
All Good Muslims must ask for Najib's tongue to be cut off for lying
its really hard now for you to claim sabah since majority of sabah population today support malaysia, heck even Pinoy who live here themselves support the peace and prosperity malaysia has brought to sabah. If given a choice, u can bet all pinoys in malaysia legal or illegal would choose to be malaysian rather than remain as pinoys. it is sad that u are fighting a long lost battle.
ReplyDeletemalaysia is not valid. oh please, tell that to the united nation. Now i can see clearly why u people will never progress, instead of focusing to develop your own people and nation, you focused on jealousy and hatred for others. Thankfully not all pinoy are like this. You can continue brewing negativity and please continue focusing on this sabah issue, so a lot of your energy shall be wasted towards this already lost battle. In the mean time, we sabahans in malaysia shall continue giving our strong support for our beloved country malaysia. We will continue living happily and work hard for our future. Good luck on your task .
ReplyDelete