By DayakDaily Team
KUCHING, March 1: Parti Bumi Kenyalang (PBK) president Voon Lee Shan has challenged claims that the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63) gains legal weight in the ongoing Federal Court case over the Petroleum Development Act 1974 (PDA74) simply because it was registered with the United Nations (UN).
He described such reasoning as a “registration fallacy,” arguing that UN registration serves only procedural and administrative purposes and does not determine a treaty’s legal validity.
Under Article 102 of the UN Charter, he explained, registration is intended to give notice to other states and enable procedural enforcement, but it does not amount to an international legal endorsement of a treaty’s validity.
“The UN’s acceptance of MA63 in 1970 was administrative, not adjudicative.
“The Secretariat does not assess validity; it merely records instruments submitted by member states,” he said in a statement today.
His remarks were made in response to recent comments by Kota Sentosa assemblyman Wilfred Yap, who had said MA63’s registration with the UN supports Sarawak’s position in seeking judicial clarification in the PDA74 dispute.
While Voon reiterated PBK’s long-held stance questioning MA63’s legal foundations, he acknowledged that Malaysian courts could not realistically rule on its validity without political and legal constraints, making domestic litigation insufficient to resolve broader questions of international law.
Looking ahead, Voon said Sarawak should explore international legal avenues in addition to domestic remedies. These include seeking an advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice (ICJ), engaging UN decolonisation procedures, and holding a sovereignty referendum under UN supervision. — DayakDaily
