Borneonisation promise has been reneged: Yong

KOTA KINABALU - If Sabahans are not allowed to take the Borneonisation case to the courts, then they may have to petition the United Nations or initiate legal action in the United Kingdom.

Former Chief Minister Datuk Seri Yong Teck Lee said the Borneonisation of the public services in Sabah was a clear-cut promise and undertaking in the Malaysia Agreement 1963.

"The same promise of Borneonisation (by the first Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman and others) was repeated many times in newspapers and official documents to lure Sabah and Sarawak to form Malaysia.

"But this promise has been reneged," he said in his talk at the forum on the Formation of the Federation of Malaysia that specifically touched on Borneonisation in the Malaysia Agreement, at Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS).

Yong, who is Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) President, claimed the posting of 89 per cent of teachers to Sabah from Malaya (Peninsular Malaysia) in January this year was further proof of the intensity of the Malayanisation of the federal public services in Sabah.

"If Malayan officers replace British colonial officers in Sabah, as feared in 1963, then some people are entitled to regard Sabah as a colony of Malaya," he said.

In this respect, Yong specifically raised the case where two Sabahans – Bernard Fung and Mohd Nazib Maidan Dally who named both the Sabah State Government and Federal Government as defendants for failure in fulfilling the promise of Borneonisation filed in the High Court here in 2011.

The High Court ruled that the claim by Fung and Mohd Nazib was justiciable and that they have the constitutional rights as Sabahans to do so.

Following an appeal by the Government of Malaysia, the High Court's decision was overruled on Feb 1, 2013 by a majority of two to three and it struck out the case of Fung and Mohd Nazib.

The Appellate Court, in its majority judgement, said it agreed with the appellant that the Borneonisation of the Federal public services in Sabah concerns a matter of policy within the purview of the executive arm of the Government and in which only the Government of Malaysia had the exclusive information and knowledge.

Hence, the Appellate Court ruled that the Borneonisation policy was a non-justiciable matter.

The Appellate Court comprising Datuk Clement Skinner (dissenting), Datuk Lim Yee Lan and Datuk Rohana Yusof viewed that the duo did not have any cause of action against the Government of Malaysia and therefore their originating summon was unmaintainable, vexatious and an abuse of the judicial process.

The case has now been scheduled for hearing at the country's highest court, the Federal Court on April 13, 2015.

DE