Malaysia at 63: Let's honestly embrace our true history

 

 As we celebrate Malaysia’s 63rd birthday, we call upon all Malaysians - whether in politics, civil service, civil society, academia, media, businesses, or just as individual citizens – to honestly embrace our true history and boldly embark on an orderly decentralisation to build a stronger Federation of Malaysia.

Our full position is as follows:

The Federation of Malaysia is built on Malaya’s 1957 Federal Constitution, which enshrines equality and basic human rights, including religious freedom; the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63), which asymmetrically modified the Constitution (to give more powers and autonomy safeguards for Sabah and Sarawak); parliamentary democracy with constitutional monarchies; and the common law system supplemented by the Syariah law and the native law at the state level.

The positive aspects of our colonial heritage were what brought Malaya, Sabah, Sarawak and Singapore together in 1963 and must continue to be respected and preserved today as the basic structure that sustains Malaysia.

Any political campaign or narrative that frames Malaysia as an extension of Malaya (Tanah Melayu), dismisses the Constitution as a colonial constitution and the common law as an infidel law, denies the MA63, proposes a two-tiered ethnocracy that places Muslims above non-Muslims, and alters the constitutional character of our monarchies and democracy, is an assault on the very idea of Malaysia.

Such extremist views against a plural, liberal and progressive Malaysia can trigger separatism and must not be allowed to dominate the federal government.

Democratic accountability

The Borneo anxiety of being shortchanged by Malayan imperialists and religious nationalists must be duly addressed before the 16th general election by giving Sarawak, Sabah and Labuan a 35 percent constitutional veto power in Dewan Negara.

The members of Dewan Negara should be expanded to 100, with 17 seats each for Sarawak and Sabah and one seat for Labuan. This can be done by amending Article 45 of the Federal Constitution in 2027, without any prolonged negotiation with other states or constituency delineation.

To ensure democratic accountability, senators from East Malaysia can be elected instead of being state government appointees, as per Article 45(4), with the electoral system to be decided under state law, as per Article 113(4).

The veto power of Sabah and Sarawak can be further strengthened by requiring any amendment to the Constitution which affects the rights of the Borneo states under MA63 to be concurrently approved by a two-thirds majority in their respective state assembly.

The Federation of Malaya was dissolved on Sept 16, 1963, to release all its 11 states to federate with Sabah, Sarawak, and Singapore as the Federation of Malaysia. There is no government of Malaya that can represent the 11 Peninsular Malaysia states in negotiations that affect the latter’s interests.

Hence, the federal government cannot, on behalf of the 11 states, make any binding trilateral deal with Sabah and Sarawak that would reduce their representation in the Dewan Rakyat under Article 46.

Any negotiation affecting the total and distribution of Dewan Rakyat seats must involve all 11 Peninsular Malaysia states. Under-represented states like Selangor (174, 225 voters per parliamentarian) and Terengganu (118, 604) have the right to demand more seats as Sabah (69,352) and Sarawak (64,204) do. (These were 2024 figures, when the national average was 64,951 voters per parliamentarian).

All 165 parliamentarians from the peninsula must faithfully protect their state/federal territory's interests in any future amendment of Article 46.

Dewan Rakyat seats

The political myth that Sabah and Sarawak deserve 35 percent of Dewan Rakyat seats must be rigorously examined and debunked. Such a claim has no basis in MA63. Even the original shares for Sarawak and Sabah in 1963, 15.6 percent and 10.4 percent, were only preserved till August 1970, as per Article 161(2)(2e).

If the Borneo states truly just want a constitutional veto power, then the right path is 35 percent seats in a strengthened and elected Dewan Negara.

A 51 percent simple majority government that theoretically can consist of all 35 percent MPs from Borneo (representing at most 17 percent voters) and 16 percent MPs from the peninsula will not have democratic legitimacy and can trigger political instability worse than what happened in 2018-2021.

After 63 years of suffocating centralisation, Malaysia needs a well-planned and orderly decentralisation roadmap that devolves more powers to all states, and always more powers for Sabah and Sarawak than the peninsula states.

Sabah and Sarawak should be formally recognised as “regions” in Article 1(2), not just as “Borneo states” as they currently are. This can be achieved through a 1+2+11 negotiation by the federal government (1), Sabah and Sarawak (2) and the peninsula states (11).

The current tripartite negotiations, with the wrong assumption that the federal government can represent the peninsula states, will be limited in their achievements.

In fact, concessions made to Sabah and Sarawak without constitutional protection (such as education power now claimed by Sarawak) can be a castle in the sand that may be swept away by the next political tsunami in the peninsula. - Mkini

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The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of MMKtT.