KUCHING, March 18: It is not seditious or treason to sue the United Kingdom, Malaysia and Sarawak governments to seek the court’s judgment on the legality of the formation of Malaysia.
This is the view of Parti Bumi Kenyalang (PBK) president Voon Lee Shan, who issued a statement to answer queries put forth by members of the public with regards to the suit.
“After the suit filed against the United Kingdom, Malaysia and Sarawak governments as defendants, seeking the court to determine the legality of the formation of Malaysia, I received many queries from members of the public about the suit.
“This was the first suit of its kind seeking the court to declare Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63) as an invalid international agreement. The suit was filed by a group of 12 Sarawakians in November 2021 and registered as Kuching High Court Suit No: KCH-21NCvC-26/11-2021,” said Voon.
He said the statement of claim had been served on all the defendants recently.
To answer some queries made about suing the defendants concerning the formation of Malaysia, he informed the public that the law does not prohibit any person who thinks, if they are aggrieved or not happy with the formation of Malaysia, to sue any person they want, except God.
“It is nothing seditious or treason to sue these governments on matters relating to the formation of Malaysia,” said Voon.
He said members of the public should not be distracted by some people who wished to say that judges could be arrested for hearing any case against people in power or against the government.
Voon, who is a senior lawyer, acknowledged the concern of the members of the public about this matter as after the Johore state election, a certain group of people had called for the arrest of Court of Appeal Judge Dato Mohd Nazlan Ghazali, who had sentenced former prime minister Datuk Najib Razak to 12 years in jail.
“The judges are protected by law and if suits in connection with MA63 or the formation of Malaysia are filed, rest assured, our court will not be cowed or intimidated to hear the suits because the court is bound under the law to dispense justice,” said Voon.
He said once a suit was filed, it was up to the court to decide whether the court would allow the claims.
To recap, he said Malaysia was formed on September 16, 1963, through an international agreement known as the MA63 between the United Kingdom, the Federation of Malaya, Singapore, North Borneo (now known as Sabah) and Sarawak.
The Federation of Malaya then took a new name, ‘Malaysia’.
Voon said the United Nations was informed of this change of name by Dato Ong Yoke Lin, the permanent secretary to the United Nations from the Federation of Malaya.
“Thus, Malaysia is Malaya, and Malaya is Malaysia,” he said.
Without the said Malaysia Agreement 1963, Malaysia could not, under international law, be formed, Voon stressed.
However, he added that Singapore left Malaysia in 1965 after Singapore, under the premiership of Lee Kuan Yew, could not patch up the political and economic differences with Malaya. — DayakDaily
