British ensured rights were protected: Analyst
Published on: Thursday, March 12, 2015
Kota Kinabalu: The British government had ensured that the rights of Sabah (North Borneo) and Sarawak were fully protected and safeguarded in the formation of Malaysia, in strictly complying with 'The Queen's Obligation' to the Borneo states.A political analyst, Zainnal Ajamain said the British government was even adamant not to simply hand over Sabah and Sarawak to the Federation of Malaya that led to the establishment of the Cobbold Commission."'The Queen's Obligation' was an element known in Borneo terms or known by the British as 'Trust Obligation' which was an important element that existed even before the setting up of the Cobbold Commission.ADVERTISEMENT "History has it that in 1959, the Orang-Orang Dayak from Baram sent a petition to the Queen to ensure that she will uphold the Sarawak Constitution 1941 with the Nine Cardinal Principles of the White Rajah when Brooke handed Sarawak to the British at that time."One of the principles was that the Queen will not indiscriminately hand over Sarawak to any quarters until Sarawak gets a settlement. Therefore, in 1960, the Queen replied the petition and gave assurances that she will uphold what was wanted by the Baram people. This was like the Queen's Promise," he said.Zainnal, who was a former lecturer in Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) Menggatal campus, said this in a recent forum on the Malaysia Agreement 1963 held at Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) here.He was among 12 panellists invited to the forum that was jointly organised by the Publicity and Public Diplomacy Programme under the Foreign Ministry and UMS. Foreign Minister Dato' Sri Anifah Aman was the moderator of the forum.ADVERTISEMENT Speaking to about 6,000 people in the Lecture Hall 2 of UMS, Zainnal said due to the Queen's Promise, the British had the 'Trust Obligations' or as a Trustee to look after the Borneo states (Sabah and Sarawak)."Based on history, Tunku Abdul Rahman wrote a letter to Macmillan to hand over the sovereignty of the Borneo territories to the Federation of Malaya.
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"But the British refused to do so. Therefore to resolve the matter, Macmillan told Tunku it was important to seek the views of the people in Borneo. This was when the Cobbold Commission was created and not only views of the Borneo people were sought but recommendations to be put in the report," he said.Zainnal said Tunku agreed to the establishment of the Cobbold Commission which in fact the British created to ensure that the rights of the Borneo states were safeguarded and protected when handed over to Malaya.He said the British did that as a way of fulfilling the 'Queen's Obligations' to the Borneo states.He said the Cobbold Commission report was completed on July 1, 1962 but only published on July 30, 1962 due to a major disagreement between the Malayan officials and the British Government in London over crucial matters including about the secession clause in tandem with the 'Queen's Obligation'."So when the Malayan officials did not get what they wanted, they turned to the local political parties in Sabah at that time like United National Kadazan Organisation (UNKO), United Sabah National Organisation (Usno), United Party, The Democratic Party and the National Pasok Momogun Organisation involving local political leaders Tun Mustapha Harun and Tun Fuad Stephens which gave birth to the 20-Points including Point No.7."The 20-Point Memorandum was prepared for the IGC meeting on Aug 29, 1962. However it (20-Points) did not matter to the British when it was submitted as the British would still proceeded with the establishment of Inter-Governmental Committee (IGC) and creation of Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63)."Britain's main concern was to ensure the rights of the Borneo states were safeguarded in the Cobbold Commission report towards the creation of MA63," he said.Zainnal said the Cobbold Commission report recommendations were passed to the IGC and later IGC incorporated those recommendations in the MA63 that safeguarded the rights of the Borneo states.He said recommendations from the Cobbold Commission and all the 20-Points had been fulfilled based on the IGC while some items in the latter were not even in the 20-Points as it (IGC report) had expanded.Subsequently, he said the IGC was discussed and 53 rights of the Borneo states agreed on to be included in the MA63. Zainnal said the IGC report was completed and signed on Aug 27, 1963 which led to the signing of the MA63 on July 9, 1963."If the people in Sabah really want to know what the Sabah rights are, then they really have to study in depth the IGC report and how the Cobbold Commission was established as well as the MA63 and the Federal Constitution."Sabah rights had been documented in the MA63 in which it stated 11 important items whereby I will mention only four as stated in four annexes– Malaysian Bill, Sabah Constitution, Sarawak Constitution and Singapore Constitution," he said.He pointed out that the Malaysian Bill was approved by the Malayan Parliament and gazetted as a Malaysian Act 1963 Chartered 35 while the Queen of England approved the constitutions of Sabah, Sarawak and Singapore and not through the Malayan Parliament.He said the Malaysia Act was the final safeguard of the Borneo states' rights when the colonial territories of British like Sabah (North Borneo), Sarawak and Singapore were handed over to the Federation of Malaya on July 31, 1963."In the handing over, the British mentioned the Federation of North Borneo, Sarawak and Singapore…this means at that time the British had recognised each, North Borneo, Sarawak and Singapore as a nation.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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"In fact in Section 11 of the Malaysia Act, it explained that North Borneo, Sarawak and Singapore were 'vested in the agreed manner'…this is very important because not many people did a research on this."It means that Federation of Malaya (Tanah Melayu) was a trustee to North Borneo, Sarawak and Singapore which were the beneficiaries. This was the relationship and we were not supposed to be under it (the Trustee) but as equal partners to the federation," Zainnal said.