That’s what we promised them

In fact, if you look at ‘Point 1’ of the Agreement, Sabah does not have any State religion. This would mean Islam is not the official religion of Sabah. And this would also mean, if a Muslim lives in Sabah, he or she can leave Islam and become a Christian or Atheist or whatever and there is nothing the government can do about it (unlike in West Malaysia where they can).

THE CORRIDORS OF POWER

Raja Petra Kamarudin

The PKR vice president is in discussions with her lawyers to haul the Sabah government to court for barring her entry into the state

(FMT, 31 May 2013) - PKR vice president, Nurul Izzah Anwar, is planning legal action against the Sabah government for barring her for entering the state.

“I’m in consultation with my lawyers on the possible action to be taken against them,” said Nurul, who is also the MP for Lembah Pantai.

Nurul headed for Sabah yesterday on the invitation of PKR deputy secretary general and Penampang MP, Darrell Leiking, invitation to celebrate the Pesta Kaamatan in Penampang.

However on arrival, she was detained by the immigration officials allegedly under the instructions of the Sabah Chief Minister’s Department before being forcibly deported to KL.

It is learnt that the Immigration Department also informed Nurul that the Chief Minister’s department had also instructed them to not only bar her but many more personalities from Peninsula from entering Sabah henceforth.

“It’s a sad situation where Sabah is actually politicising security, and vengeance should not be practiced in security,” said Nurul. “Pakatan still welcomes everyone into PR governed states such as Penang and Selangor.”

Leiking, meanwhile condemned the Sabah Immigration Department and those who instructed them to bar her, saying that they should be ashamed of themselves.

“I challenge the Sabah Chief Minister and state’s cabinet to explain to the people of Sabah and Malaysia why this act transpired,” said Leiking.

**********************************************

Today, Member of Parliament for Lembah Pantai Nurul Izzah Anwar was barred from entering Sabah. This is not the first time something like this has happened and will certainly not be the last time.

While this is most unfortunate and definitely violates one’s fundamental liberties -- something I have been arguing in support of for a very long time indeed (including the fundamental liberties of apostates and gays) we need to discuss this incident against the backdrop of what the opposition Pakatan Rakyat promised the Sabah people in the run-up to the recent general election less than a month ago. 

If you can remember, Pakatan Rakyat promised Sabah and Sarawak full-autonomy plus it promised to respect the terms and spirit of the 18- and 20-Point Agreements (plus it promised them an increase of the Oil Royalty from 5% to 20%). So we need to discuss the ‘deportation’ of Nurul Izzah against this backdrop -- a promise made by Pakatan Rakyat.

In short, this is what the opposition promised them and what happened is merely a fulfillment of this election promise.

According to ‘Point 6’ of the Agreement, Sabah has the absolute right to determine who can and cannot be allowed into Sabah. And no reason needs to be given in denying anyone entry into Sabah.

Is this fair? It may not be fair but this is what we promised them and they are just doing what we promised them and what is within their rights to do. According to the Agreement, they do have a right to do this. And according to what we promised them, we will honour and respect this right.

In fact, if you look at ‘Point 1’ of the Agreement, Sabah does not have any State religion. This would mean Islam is not the official religion of Sabah. And this would also mean, if a Muslim lives in Sabah, he or she can leave Islam and become a Christian or Atheist or whatever and there is nothing the government can do about it (unlike in West Malaysia where they can).

Furthermore, English is the official language of the state and all communications should be in English plus the government can close down Malay, Chinese and Tamil schools and force everyone to go to just English-medium schools.

Another point, and a very important point to note, is that the Federal Constitution of Malaya is no longer valid. And you cannot amend the Federal Constitution of Malaya and turn it into the Federal Constitution of Malaysia. You need to discard the current Federal Constitution and come out with a brand new Constitution.

That is what the opposition promised Sabah (and Sarawak). Hence Islam and Bahasa Malaysia should not be the official religion and language respectively for Sabah plus Sabah can decide on who can and cannot enter that state.

Hence can we therefore protest when they merely do what we promised them they could do? So we need to be careful about making election promises just so that we can win votes. Now we need to honour those promises and not protest when they act on those promises.

Have we painted ourselves into a corner? That may appear so.

**********************************************

The 20-point Agreement between the Federation of Malaya and Sabah

Point 1: Religion 

While there was no objection to Islam being the national religion of Malaysia there should be no State religion in North Borneo, and the provisions relating to Islam in the present Constitution of Malaya should not apply to North Borneo.

Point 2: Language

a. Malay should be the national language of the Federation.

b. English should continue to be used for a period of 10 years after Malaysia Day.

c. English should be an official language of North Borneo for all purposes, State or Federal, without limitation of time.

Point 3: Constitution

Whilst accepting that the present Constitution of the Federation of Malaya should form the basis of the Constitution of Malaysia, the Constitution of Malaysia should be a completely new document drafted and agreed in the light of a free association of states and should not be a series of amendments to a Constitution drafted and agreed by different states in totally different circumstances. A new Constitution for North Borneo was of course essential.

Point 6: Immigration

Control over immigration into any part of Malaysia from outside should rest with the Central Government but entry into North Borneo should also require the approval of the State Government. The Federal Government should not be able to veto the entry of persons into North Borneo for State Government purposes except on strictly security grounds. North Borneo should have unfettered control over the movements of persons other than those in Federal Government employ from other parts of Malaysia into North Borneo.