Malaysia, it is being written, is
celebrating its 53rd year of independence since the departure of the British
colonialists. This appears to support the unspoken, unwritten, official line
that 1957 is the year of independence for the entire country. This version of
history can only mean that Malaya underwent a name change in 1963 to emerge as
Malaysia. Hence the story of 53 years continues.
The old Federation of Malaya and
its Federal Constitution was supposed to become defunct on Sept 16, 1963 when a
new federation, Malaysia, with the promise of a new Federal Constitution was to
emerge on the same day in an alliance of four territories in equal partnership
namely, Malaya, Singapore, Sabah and Sarawak. Brunei stayed out at the 11th
hour and look where it is today compared with its neighbouring two sister
states in Borneo. That’s another story.
The equal partnership concept
never worked out in practice and Singapore left two years later, in 1965,
amidst allegations that Malaya was squatting like a colonialist on the former.
This is the same allegation being made today by the ad hoc apolitical Hindraf
Makkal Sakthi which has a constituency, like the Palestinians, but no
territory. Also, in the case of Singapore, as with Sabah and Sarawak, there was
no new constitution. Malaysia had the same old constitution as Malaya with some
minor additions made to admit the other territories.
It’s Malaya that is celebrating
its 53rd year of independence this year. Sabah and Sarawak were independent for
only 16 days, that is, from Aug 31, 1963 to Sept 16, 1963 before being
colonised by Malaya. But truth and history do not seem to matter in the
corridors of power.
is the only term that comes to mind when one
considers that the results of the United Nations Referendum, announced on Sept
16, 1963, showed that only a third of the people – overwhelmingly Muslim –
supported the “new” federation. Another third, mostly Chinese, were completely
opposed to Malaysia. The remaining third, mostly non-Muslim natives, wanted a
period of independence before re-considering the idea of Malaysia again. They
also wanted further information on what Malaysia means.
All this is a matter of
historical record but given scant attention in Malaysian schools along with
another period, that is, the brutal occupation of the country by Japan during
World War 11.
The decision to proceed with
Malaysia, despite the UN referendum results, were never explained. Instead, the
Muslim take and non-Muslim native misgivings were lumped together to deduce
that two-thirds of the people in fact favoured Malaysia.
This sheer blatant propaganda by
Malaya and the British did not cut ice with the Philippines — it claims the
eastern and northern third of Sabah – and Indonesia. The then President Sukarno
of Indonesia thundered that Malaysia was a neo-colonialist plot against the
people of Sabah and Sarawak – Kalimantan Utara, according to him – and he vowed
to crush it.
As Sabah prepares to play host to
the first official celebration of Malaysia this Sept 16, Sukarno’s take on the
UN referendum results has caught up with us in the present to haunt our future.
Malayan troops marching into
Sabah and Sarawak on Sept 16, 1963 in the wake of the British departure is akin
to Indonesian troops marching into East Timor after the Portuguese colonialists
left. Twenty-seven years later, the UN kicked Indonesia out of East Timor, now
known as Timor Leste.
There are parallels between East
Timor, on the one hand, and Sabah, Sarawak on the other. Not a day goes by in
these two states when people don’t wonder how they came under the yoke of
Putrajaya. The charge of colonialism sticks and can be seen in the fact, for
example, that there has been no Borneonisation of the federal civil cervice in
the two states. The federal government is also not being shared equally by
Malaya, Sabah and Sarawak.
Those who preach the philosophy
of ketuanan Melayu – Malay political supremacy and dominance – appear to carry
on as if the British bequeathed Sabah and Sarawak to them as their colonies.
Indeed, Malaysia was a British
idea – backed by their permanent seat in the UN Security Council – to
circumvent the 24-nation UN Decolonisation Committee. The committee held that
all colonies must be freed within the shortest possible time to prevent a Third
World War. The Second World War was fought over the continued existence of the
colonial empires with closed markets that excluded Japan and Germany. These two
nations then tried to create their own colonial empires by sheer military
force.
Forty-seven years later, Sabah
opposition strongman Jeffrey Gapari Kitingan is leading a mass movement for
change in Malaysian Borneo through the ad hoc apolitical Common Interest Group
Malaysia (CigMA) “to reverse the re-colonisation of Sabah and Sarawak”.
The CigMA campaign is based on
several issues, namely Sabah and Sarawak Rights, the 20-Point Agreement,
autonomy, the Malaysia Agreement and the concept of equal partnership as
promised by the Malaysia concept. This is like putting the cart before the
horse. This is a debate that has camouflaged the issue.
The UN referendum results of 1963
must first be taken into consideration. The ghosts from the past must be laid
to rest. There is no better way than to hold another UN referendum in Sabah and
Sarawak on Malaysia.
Justice must be done this time to
the non-Muslim natives and the Chinese in Sabah and Sarawak. Their voices need
to be taken into account. Non-Muslim native opposition to Malaysia has been
captured by former Sabah state secretary Simon Sipaun at a forum in Kota
Kinabalu on July 31, “Formation of Malaysia, a Promise Re-visited and the Way
Forward”.
It’s unlikely that these two
communities have changed their mind on Malaysia. If anything, they have
decidedly become even more hostile to the idea of Peninsular Malaysians calling
the shots in Sabah and Sarawak from Putrajaya. Interestingly, they have been
joined by local Muslims who feel increasingly neutralised, marginalised and
alienated from the mainstream by the continuing influx of illegal immigrants
who enter the electoral rolls with MyKads issued through the backdoor.
The idea of another UN referendum
in Sabah and Sarawak is not something new. It has been there ever since 1963
and voiced over the years by various quarters. The latest demands are from
Kitingan himself and former Sabah Chief Minister Harris Salleh. Kitingan echoed
Harris Salleh at the July 31 forum organised by CigMA in association with
another NGO, the Borneo Heritage Foundation (BHF). - FMT
sources : http://hornbillunleashed.wordpress.com/2010/10/21/9403/
