Sabah, Sarawak should be equal partners to peninsula - Dr Jeff

State Reform Party (STAR) chief Datuk Dr Jeffrey Kitingan said the Malaysia Agreement 1963 has turned out to be a "takeover" project that has left the Borneo states subservient to Peninsular Malaysia, and robbed them of their wealth and political independence.

“If we were to save Malaysia, we have to restructure (the government). We cannot leave it like it is right now. It is one-sided,” Kitingan told a forum in Kuala Lumpur today.

He said revamping the structure of the Federal government could be done in two ways.

“One option is, Malaya will remain Federation of Malaya. You will have your own states, you will have your own prime minister, and own unitary (central) government.

“Sarawak will have the same thing. All the residencies in Sarawak will become states. And we can create a unitary government (each) in Sabah and Sarawak. They can then have their own prime ministers,” said the Bingkor state assemblyman.

Kitingan said the three central governments could collectively form a new Federal government that would cooperate on national policies, while development issues in each region would be left to each central government.

The new Federal government would be headed by one prime minister, known as the Prime Minister of Malaysia, he added.

“This means we are all in the Federation of Malaysia, but Sabah (and Sarawak) have their own government. Don’t kacau-kacau (disturb) there, we don’t kacau-kacau you here (Peninsular Malaysia),” he said.

“We take care of our own development, but we coordinate on the federal policies.

“This way, everything is fair. Then you retain what the Cobbold Commission Chairman was saying, 'that you retain your individualities',” Kitingan said at the forum jointly organised by the Sarawak Association for People’s Aspiration and Borneo Heritage Foundation of Sabah.

Another option, said Kitingan, was to have one elected prime minister and three deputy prime ministers, one from the peninsula, one from Sabah, and one from Sarawak.

He said calls for a review of the Malaysia Agreement 1963, the oil agreement and even for a separation between the peninsula and Borneo states were growing louder.

“Instead of Sabah and Sarawak becoming equal partners to Malaya, we (Borneo) are just rooms in the longhouse of Malaysia. We were downgraded to become the 12th and 13th states. Malaya went up, Sabah and Sarawak stayed down,” said Kitingan.

“We feel we are being recolonised.”

By Anisah Shukry