Sarawak feels Sabah does not deserve 16 seats
Published on: Saturday, December 14, 2019
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JESSELTON, Sun. - Unofficial members of the Inter Government Committee who returned by MAL Viscount this afternoon all said that they were satisfied with the safeguards which have been agreed upon and are happy with the result of the last Plenary Meeting of the Inter Governmental Committee. “Malaysia will come about according to schedule”, they all said.
Datu Mustapha, Mr Donald Stephens and Mr Peter Lo spent an extra day in Singapore after the meeting before returning to Jesselton.
The meeting in Kuala Lumpur they said had been strenuous affair. Meetings usually began at 8.30 am with a short conference among the Sabah delegation and at 9 o’clock the full Plenary Session began and went on up to well after 6pm. This was followed by receptions, cocktails or dinners.
“The hospitality of the Malayans is well known” Mr Stephens said and jokingly said that if one was not careful one could just as easily be the victim of a break down from the effects of hospitality as from over work.
“Agreement has been reached on all major questions” Mr Stephens told the press. He said that he and his colleagues, had fought very hard for the twenty points embodied in the memorandum originally submitted to the Landsdowne Inter Governmental Committee and the Malayans had made many very generous gestures and conceded on points which, he said, few had hoped to get.
Pressed for details, Mr Stephens said that, a Report which is now being prepared will be tabled in the Legislative Council and will afford members of Council to debate the Report. He said it would not be right to anticipate the publication of the Report by making public now what will be embodied in the report.
But he was in a position to say that he himself and, he was sure all his colleagues in the Inter Governmental Committee, were genuinely satisfied with the result of the work of the Intergovernmental Committee.
I think I should say that we found Tun Abdul Razak, leader of the Malayan delegation and Deputy Chairman of the patient, kind and always willing to understand our difficulties and to help solve them in a friendly and constructive manner”. Mr Stephens said, and stressed that it was Tun Razak’s cooperation and friendliness which was undoubtedly responsible for the early completion of the work of the Inter governmental Committee.
Mr Stephens also paid warm tribute to the work of Lord Landsowne, Sir John Martin and all members of the Sabah Team.
As joint-leader of the Sabah Team, Mr Stephens said he had found the so called “expatriates members” of his team sincere and unsparing in their efforts to help the unofficial with their expert advice and in all the deliberations which they had taken active part, their sole desire was to see that the people of Sabah achieved the best terms possible in Malaysia.
“We have done our best and all I hope is that when the Report is published, the report which will embody all the safeguards we want, the people of Sabah will agree that the terms we have been able to get, have been the best possible and that our entry into Malaysia under the terms already agreed upon will be for the present, as well as the long term good of this country and our people.” Mr Stephens concluded.
One thing which “had become public property” and so can be divulged, the Members of the I.G.C., said today was the agreement which was reached regarding distribution of the 40 seats which Sabah and Sarawak are to get in the Malaysian Parliament, Sabah will get 16 seats and the Sarawakians 24.
Taking into consideration the size and population and the fact that Sarawak should be entitled to bigger rural representation, the division was fair. It was learned that the North Borneo delegation had “to fight very hard” in the I.G. C.
for the 16 seats because the Sarawakains had felt that they should be entitled to 26 seats and Sabah only 14.
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