By DayakDaily Team
KUCHING, Sept 16: Newly declassified British colonial documents confirm that the so-called “formation of Malaysia” on Sept 16, 1963, was a fraudulent annexation of North Borneo (Sabah) and Sarawak, carried out in collusion between the United Kingdom, the Malayan government, and then UN Secretary-General U Thant, Parti Bumi Kenyalang (PBK), Sabah Sarawak Rights Australia New Zealand (SSRANZ), and Borneo’s Plight in Malaysia Foundation (BoPiMaFo) claim in a joint statement.
The groups stressed that, contrary to popular claims, the United Nations never recognised Malaysia.
Instead, Malaya and the UK exploited procedural loopholes, bypassing a proper UN membership application and suppressing the right of Sabah and Sarawak to full independence.
According to the statement, the evidence shows that the UN mission in 1963 was rigged and tokenistic, consulting only a small fraction of the population and never offering independence as an option.
Furthermore, the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63) was signed while Sabah and Sarawak were still colonies with no legal capacity to enter into treaties, making MA63 void from the start.
It also pointed out that MA63 was not registered with the UN until 1970, in breach of Article 102 of the UN Charter, rendering it legally unusable at the time.
These flaws, the groups noted, mirror the Chagos Islands case (ICJ, 2019), which confirmed that colonial powers cannot lawfully dispose of non-self-governing territories without the free and genuine will of the people.
The statement emphasised that this unfinished decolonisation is not merely historical, but continues to affect Sabah and Sarawak today.
Among the examples cited were the denial of full control over oil and gas resources despite MA63 promises, the federal government’s failure to honour the 40 per cent revenue entitlement under the Constitution, under-representation in Parliament with fewer than one-third of seats, and systematic socio-economic marginalisation.
“Time does not legitimise injustice. The fraudulent foundation of Malaysia continues to deny the peoples of Sabah and Sarawak their lawful rights,” the statement said.
The joint statement called on the United Nations to acknowledge that the decolonisation of Sabah and Sarawak was never lawfully completed, recognise the continuing right of their peoples to self-determination under UNGA Resolutions 1514 and 1541, refer the matter to the Fourth Committee (Decolonisation) for impartial investigation, and facilitate a UN-supervised act of self-determination, including the option of independence.
“The credibility of the UN’s decolonisation mandate is at stake. If the UN fails to act, it continues to legitimise a colonial-era fraud,” the groups warned.
The statement was signed by PBK president, Voon Lee Shan, BoPiMaFo president, Daniel John Jambun, and SSRANZ president, Robert Pei. — DayakDaily
