KUCHING, Aug 20: An entirely new deal is needed for Malaya, Sarawak and Sabah after the cessation of Singapore in 1965 that had rendered the Federation of Malaysia as contained in Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63) null and void.
Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS) president Tan Sri Dr James Jemut Masing, in stating this, opined that it would be best for the remaining three territories to chart a new deal.
“Let’s renegotiate the new deal for the union of Malaya, Sarawak and Sabah. Let the territories within Malaysia make a ‘new agreement’. It will not be MA63 because this new deal has superseded MA63,” he suggested in a press release today.
Masing, who is also Deputy Chief Minister, stressed that the freedom to sign the new agreement, MA19 or or MA20 or whatever it would be named, lies exclusively with the individual territories which stand for Malaya, Sarawak and Sabah.
“It will indeed be a new Malaysia as coined by Pakatan Harapan (PH) government,” he added, while reiterating that MA63 was already a done deal.
“It was agreed and signed by parties from Malaya, Singapore, Sarawak and Sabah. The PH’s 14th General Election (GE14) Manifesto has nothing to do with MA63 committee chaired by the Prime Minister (Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad),” he said.
According to Masing, when Singapore withdrew in 1965, it has rendered the four parties agreement under MA63 ‘null and void’ because there was no supplementary agreement signed between Malaya, Sarawak and Sabah after 1965 to validate the three territories’ “union”.
He asserted that the so called negotiation or meeting chaired by the Prime M Minister on MA63, in fact, was equivalent to the creation of a Supplementary Agreement after the withdrawal of Singapore.
“If this is what the current meeting involving Malaya, Sarawak and Sabah, chaired by the Prime Minister is all about, then I’m for it,” he added.— DayakDaily
