Voon: Big mistake for Sarawak to have joined the federation

Voon Lee Shan

KUCHING, Dec 20: Parti Bumi Kenyalang (PBK) president Voon Lee Shan urged the Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) government to exit from the federation of Malaysia as it did not benefit the interest of the state and its people.

According to Voon in a press statement today, the union with the Federation of Malaya was a big mistake and not workable in the interest of Sarawak.

“The fact that Sarawak and Sabah’s Malaysia Agreement (MA63) rights and powers have to be ‘negotiated’ again after 56 years in the union and that there is a Steering Committee to look into the breaches and restoration of rights and the status of Sarawak as an equal partner in the federation, with proposal to amend Article 1(2) of the Federal Constitution is itself an admission by the federal government that the formation of Malaysia was tainted by violations and non-compliance.


“Parti Bumi Kenyalang hereby demands GPS government to seek independence from Malaysia or to declare Sarawak free and independent from Malaysia,” he said.

Voon also claimed that the federal, Sabah and GPS government of Sarawak’s focus to have Article 1(2) of the Federation Constitution amended was seen by many as protecting the interests of certain people in power in the rich marine life, oil and gas business that the people of Sabah and Sarawak are deprived of.

He said MA63 was not validly made in good faith in accordance with international law and therefore was an illegal union.

“Malaysia was born a dead child and the Death Certificate, in the form of MA63 could not be rectified by the federal Parliament, acting as a doctor to resuscitate or breathe life into it.

“No doctor can revive a dead body; MA63 is nothing of value, but can only be a good piece of toilet paper, and the entering of MA63 by Singapore, Sabah and Sarawak to form Malaysia is like entering into a toilet, where if the ‘toilet’ is filthy, it is time for Sabah and Sarawak to get out of the toilet,” said Voon.

He also pointed that Singapore walked out of the federation in 1965 because Singapore could no longer withstand the “filthy toilet” and asked for an exit from Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra after Malaya and Singapore could not settle their economic and political differences.

Voon further explained that the public needed to be informed that the object of MA63 was illegal because it was used to transfer Britain’s sovereignty over Sarawak and North Borneo to Malaya in deliberate breach of United Nations General Assembly Resolution 1514 requiring that all colonies must be de-colonized.

He continued that this illegal purpose was evidenced by the secret Anglo-Malayan “Agreement to Set up the Federation of Malaya” signed on 31 July 1962.

“Without the MA63, how could there be a Malaysian Constitution? The present Malaysian Constitution was in fact the Constitution of Malaya and this speaks volumes that the Malaya knew that the Federation of Malaysia was never formed as the formation was illegal under international law.

“Article 160 of the Federal Constitution is clear that, “The Federation” refers to the Federation of Malaya, not Malaysia,” he added.

Voon said that the British and Malayan governments misrepresented Malaysia as an equal partnership between four countries joining to form a new state but it was only the enlargement of the Malayan Federation by absorbing Singapore, North Borneo and Sarawak, and renaming it to Malaysia.

He said to circumvent the whole matter the federation of Malaya then adopted a new name, the federation of Malaysia after Singapore, North Borneo and Sarawak were absorbed as territories of Malaya.

“The United Nations record shows that there was no new nation born on 16 September, 1963 but a change of name of Malaya to Malaysia.

“To give Sabah and Sarawak equal status by amending Article 1(2) of the Federal Constitution under an illegal union is meaningless if resources like marine life, waters, oil and gas are not returned to the peoples of Sabah and Sarawak.

“The peoples of Sabah and Sarawak, after being deprived of trillions of ringgit worth of revenues in past nearly sixty years from their marine life, oil and gas, want all their sea territories, oil and gas back,” he said. —DayakDaily.