KUCHING, Oct 11: There is no point for the Pakatan Harapan federal government and Gabungan Parti Sarawak-led state government to convince the people that the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63) is valid or can be validated.
According to Parti Bumi Kenyalang president Voon Lee Shan, activists and lawyers have explained time and again that MA63 is illegal and void ab initio.
The people must know that Sarawak was never offered the right to a referendum under customary international law, he added.
“Even if MA63 is valid, the fundamental breaches of MA63 had caused the demise of the agreement. The agreement is dead and it cannot be resuscitated,” he said in a statement.
Voon explained that the United Nations Resolution 1514 is more superior to MA63 and the Malaysian Federal Constitution, because United Nations Resolution 1514 gives no discretion to colonial masters not to decolonise their colonies without their right to exercise self-determination and ultimately, self-government.
He claimed that for this reason, Great Britain tried to put a circus show to convince the United Nations that United Nations Resolution 1514 had been complied with by implementing MA63.
“Legal experts are of the opinion that Great Britain flouted customary international law with United Nations Resolution 1514 seen through the prism of Article 73 of United Nation Charter.
“It is therefore, deemed to be deficient, defective, oppressive, unconstitutional, unconscionable, odious, acrimonious, illegal and voidable under international law,” Voon said.
He opined that MA63 is widely considered a fraud levied upon the people of Sarawak with Great Britain in collusion with Malaya and an unsuspecting Brunei and a vigilant Singapore.
In this regards, the wishes, aspirations and expectations of the people of Sarawak became secondary.
“Great Britain had twice denied the people of Sabah and Sarawak a referendum on the Malaysia question.
“It is settled under customary international law that Great Britain’s furtive design on Sabah and Sarawak was devious and destructive if one is to follow the advisory opinion on the Chagos Islands case delivered on Feb 25, 2019, by the International Court of Justice,” said Voon.
He also felt that Constitutional expert Emeritus Prof Datuk Dr Shad Saleem Faruqi should have told Sarawakians, during his talk in the city last Tuesday, that MA63 is an invalid Treaty.
He reiterated that the rights of the people of Sabah and Sarawak in MA63 had been diluted by constitutional amendments to the Malaysian Federal Constitution.
“Lawyers and activists had argued that without a valid MA63, there is no Malaysia and without Malaysia, there is no Malaysian Federal Constitution, which created the Petroleum Development Act 1974 to give Petronas the right to take the oil and gas resources that belong to Sabah and Sarawak.
“This is the first time a company incorporated under the Companies Act 1965 fell under the control of the prime minister,” Voon said.
Voon believed that the on-going debate will not be able to resolve the problems faced by the Sarawak government in dealing with Petronas on the issue.
“This is an exercise in futility,” he said. — DayakDaily
