By DayakDaily Team
KUCHING, Feb 3: Sarawak’s status as an equal partner in the Federation of Malaysia must be fully honoured in law and practice, as anything less would render the federation meaningless and amount to a betrayal of the 1963 constitutional bargain.
Sarawak United Peoples’ Party (SUPP) secretary general Datuk Sebastian Ting said the party stood unequivocally behind the remarks made by Works Minister and Kapit MP Dato Sri Alexander Nanta Linggi during his recent appearance on The Breakfast Grille with Wong Shou Ning on BFM 89.9, stressing that equal partnership was no longer a matter of political interpretation but a constitutional requirement.
He said the passage of the Constitution (Amendment) Act 2021 had formally entrenched the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63), the Inter-Governmental Committee (IGC) Report and a redefined constitutional meaning of “Malaysia” within the Federal Constitution, recognising Sarawak and Sabah as founding partners rather than subordinate states.
“This amendment decisively ends decades of manufactured ambiguity,” he said, adding that any attempt to treat MA63 as symbolic history instead of binding constitutional substance was now legally and constitutionally dishonest.
Despite this clarity, Ting noted that claims continued to surface asserting that the ownership, management and regulation of oil and gas were determined solely by the Petroleum Development Act 1974 (PDA 1974), a federal statute enacted more than a decade after Sarawak helped form the federation.
“That position, legally and morally, cannot stand,” he said, arguing that a federal law passed in 1974 could not supersede rights and safeguards that pre-existed it under MA63, which is now expressly recognised by the Federal Constitution.
To suggest otherwise, said Ting, who is also Piasau assemblyman, would elevate ordinary legislation above the federation’s founding agreement, amounting to an inversion of constitutional hierarchy.
He said Sarawak’s leaders had foreseen these risks even before Malaysia was formed, citing a warning by the late Temenggong Oyong Lawai Jau in 1962 on unequal development.
“I see Malaya as a fruit garden—already flourishing, with ripe fruit ready for harvest, securely fenced with belian wood. But what can I say of Sarawak?” Ting quoted.
He also referred to cautions by the late Temenggong Tun Jugah Barieng, the grandfather of Nanta, on the danger of resource exploitation that leaves local communities with little benefit.
Tun Jugah warned that if Sarawakians were not vigilant, others would come, take the sugar cane, enjoy its sweetness, and leave only the bagasse — the crushed, worthless residue — behind.
“These were not folklore. They were precise warnings about unequal benefit, resource exploitation and the consequences of surrendering control while being promised partnership,” Ting said.
He added that those warnings were increasingly relevant today, particularly if MA63 was constitutionally recognised but operationally ignored.
“If Sarawak’s territorial waters and natural resources are acknowledged in theory but controlled unilaterally in practice, then equal partnership is reduced to performance,” he said.
Ting, who is also the Deputy Minister of Tourism, stressed that Sarawak was not seeking special treatment but asserting pre-existing rights that were never surrendered.
He said equal partnership required tangible consequences, including federal laws being interpreted in harmony with MA63, genuine devolution of authority over natural resources, and constitutional recognition that translated into real governance outcomes rather than ceremonial acknowledgement.
“Anything less is not unity. Anything less is not a federation. Anything less is a betrayal of the 1963 constitutional bargain,” he said, adding that Malaysia was formed by agreement, not absorption.
“That agreement has now been reaffirmed in the Constitution itself. It must therefore be honoured — fully, faithfully and without evasion,” he emphasised. — DayakDaily
