KUCHING: The second Borneo States Symposium held at the Borneo Cultures Museum participated by political and NGOs from both Sabah and Sarawak adopted seven resolutions, Saturday.
These were:
- That the Borneo States be allocated at least 35 per cent of Parliamentary seats;
- That representatives from the Borneo States be included in all fiscal and monetary policy making agencies;
- That the Federal Government pay Sabah the 40 per cent as stated in the Malaysia Agreement 1963;
- That full devolution of power on education to the Borneo States be carried out immediately with full funding from the Federal Government;
- That the governments of the Borneo States collaborate to create the “Borneo School of Economics and Political Science” to educate and train the next generation of leaders;
- That all Federal funds for the Borneo States be transferred to their consolidated funds to implement projects independently;
- That equal funding be given to all religious bodies in Sarawak and Sabah.
Sabah Deputy Chief Minister cum Minister of Agriculture and Fishery Datuk Seri Panglima Dr Jeffrey Kitingan said the Sabah Government did its best to claim the state’s 40 per cent revenue sharing entitlement.
Speaking at the event, he suggested Sabah first collect the revenues earned from the state before remitting it to federal.
“We asked eight times for the data from the federal authorities as they have the figures, but they did not respond,” he said at the symposium themed “Realising the Dreams and Visions of the Peoples of the Borneo States”.
“We have not gone to the independent assessor. We may have to do that. Election is coming. Give us your opinion,” he said.
Dr Jeffrey suggested that Sabah come up with a formula as proposed by ex-Sabah Law Society (SLS) President Datuk Roger Chin, instead of endless negotiations over non-negotiable issues and that Sabah needs to collect its own revenues before remitting 60 per cent to the federal coffers.
Dr Jeffrey was the first speaker. It was organised by “The Sarawak Initiatives” (TSI) and “Sabah Action Body Advocating Rights” (Sabar) to raise political literacy and consciousness among the Sabah and Sarawak grassroots.
It was felt that as there is discontent about the inequitable sharing of resources and lack of fiscal federalism as Sabah and Sarawak do not get what was promised at the formation of Malaysia with Malaya and Singapore in 1963 as equal partners.
Former Sarawak Attorney General Dato Sri J. C. Fong said it was pointless to keeping on negotiating in vain and at the same time not doing anything constructive.
He suggested it is time to start collecting whatever revenue income possible within state’s actionable control as the way forward to make progress in what Professor James Chin described the situation as “No money, No Talk.”
Dr Jeffrey asked the more than 250 participants in the audience to focus on the many MA63 issues and breaches and suggest what can be done.
Dr Jeffrey described himself as a “very disappointed man” with the subject matter lingering for more than 60 years. Beginning with his narration on the hasty formation of Malaysia to his ISA detention over raising Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63 rights) claims, up to his experience with all the recent prime ministers “going back to the bad habit” leading to no settlement, with tactics of divide and rule in treatment of Sabah and Sarawak.
He again claimed that former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir told him not to teach the people of Sabah on what they did not know on such matters, and that land matters should be under federal control.
He was also asked to be Sabah Chief Minister over his brother (Pairin), but he declined on principle as he was not the head of his party which was headed by his elder brother then.
He said in 1976, Sabah and Sarawak were made the 12th and 13th states of Malaya. “There was no Malaysia”.
While shortly after the Double Six incident, East Malaysia were made to sign away their oil and gas resources.
“A lot of things happened in 1976,” Dr Jeffrey said, inferring that after the demise of Deputy PM Tun Dr Ismail and Tun Abdul Razak, the MA63 was also “lost” along with “the loss of our rights and oil and gas resources, etc”.
There is discontent about the inequitable sharing of resources and lack of fiscal federalism as Sabah and Sarawak do not receive their rightful and fair share of financial benefit as a result of their contribution to federal coffers from petroleum.
They are also unhappy about the tendency of federal authorities to centralise decision-making at the expense of state autonomy.
On the status of negotiation on MA63, out of 29 issues as at May 28, 2024, 11 issues were deemed settled.
One was deemed partly settled, concerning the Special Grant for Sabah and Sarawak under Article 112D (RM300 million). Four were not settled but with decision made.
Nine were not settled but in discussions. Four matters were not settled with the federal and state authorities agreeing to disagree at this point in time.
Dr Jeffrey bemoaned that after the ejection of Singapore from the Federation of Malaysia in 1965, the then federal government got to control 75 per cent of the parliamentary seats and East Malaysia was left with 25 per cent of the parliamentary seats without Singapore’s share of the parliamentary seats to prevent West Malaysian political parties have two-third of parliamentary seats: “They can even change the Federal Constitution to erode our rights.”
He said people voting for West Malaysian parties will further erode our rights. Dr Jeffrey and ex-Sabah Law Society (SLS) president Datuk Roger Chin noted that the federal Attorney-General’s appeal against the 40 per cent legal suit begs the question of the sincerity of the Federal Government to settle the issue in the spirit of MA63.
The provisions of MA63 must be effectively implemented, particularly the recommendations of the Inter-Governmental Committee (IGC) as without Sabah and Sarawak, there would be no Malaysia, he said. -Daily Express