By DayakDaily Team
KUCHING, Oct 21: Sabah’s 40 per cent revenue entitlement issue is only part of a broader pattern of systemic breaches of the Malaysia Agreement 1963’s (MA63) founding guarantees, said the Sabah Sarawak Rights Australia New Zealand (SSRANZ) and Borneo Plight in Malaysia Foundation (BoPiMaFo).
In a joint statement issued on Oct 19, they also listed several other alleged issues, including the erosion of secularism, the weakening of Sabah and Sarawak’s political representation following Singapore’s exit from the federation in 1965, and the unlawful expropriation of territorial and natural resource rights.
Furthermore, they said that any attempt by the federal government to delay, dilute, or frustrate the High Court’s ruling on Sabah’s 40 per cent revenue entitlement would amount to holding both the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63) treaty and the court’s ruling in contempt, which would confirm that the government does not consider itself bound by MA63.
In addition, tthis would also confirm that all domestic remedies have been exhausted, leaving international recourse as the only lawful path for Sabah and Sarawak to seek justice.
The groups further claimed that MA63 was not registered with the United Nations (UN) until 1970, creating a seven-year legal vacuum which, according to them, rendered the federation’s early years without international legal standing.
SSRANZ said this oversight, combined with the absence of a genuine UN-supervised act of self-determination in 1963, raised questions about whether Malaysia’s formation complied with the Manila Accord (1963) and the Bangkok Peace Agreement (1966), both of which set preconditions for the formation of Malaysia.
They said the decision had crystallised long-standing grievances over federal-State relations and underscored the need for international scrutiny to ensure that the founding promises of Malaysia were honoured.
Additionally, they also backed calls that Malaysia’s formation must now be reviewed by the ICJ and the UN to determine whether it complied with international law and the decolonisation principles outlined in UN General Assembly Resolutions 1514 and 1541 on the right to self-determination.
The organisations also urged the UN to conduct a referendum in Sabah and Sarawak, allowing the people of both territories to democratically decide their political future.
“Decades of breaches have destroyed the integrity of MA63. Malaysia’s foundation was built on international treaties involving multiple sovereign parties, and it is no longer a purely domestic issue,” the statement emphasised.
They also called on the governments of Sabah and Sarawak to jointly establish a legal and diplomatic task force to prepare submissions to the ICJ and engage the international community to support the review process.
“The time has come for leaders of Sabah and Sarawak, across all political lines, to stand united in defending the rights and sovereignty of their people. The High Court’s ruling is not an end, but a beginning.”
On Oct 17, the Kota Kinabalu High Court ruled that the federal government had acted unlawfully by failing to honour Sabah’s 40 per cent revenue entitlement for nearly five decades.
Judge Celestine Stuel Galid declared that the arrangements made between the federal and Sabah governments were “unlawful, ultra vires and irrational,” rendering the Second and Third Review Orders invalid. — DayakDaily
