By Daniel John Jambun, President Borneo’s Plight in Malaysia Foundation (BoPiMaFo)
KOTA KINABALU: Borneo’s Plight in Malaysia Foundation (BoPiMaFo) takes note of recent calls to reinstate full religious freedom in Sabah following growing concerns over federal religious centralisation and the possible revival of the Mufti (Federal Territories) Bill.
BoPiMaFo agrees that Sabahans—particularly the Momogun (Indigenous communities)—are increasingly vulnerable to administrative Islamisation and jurisdictional confusion. However, we emphasise that the roots of this crisis lie not only in Putrajaya, but in Sabah itself.
Sabah entered Malaysia in 1963 on the explicit assurance that there would be no State religion in the Borneo States. This guarantee was formally recorded in the British Parliament by Nigel Fisher, and formed part of the constitutional understanding underpinning the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63).
Yet in 1973, the Sabah State Assembly amended the Sabah Constitution to designate Islam as the State religion.
That amendment represented a fundamental departure from Sabah’s founding safeguards.
It was not a minor policy shift.
It was a structural constitutional rupture.
From that moment onward, Sabah voluntarily dismantled its own firewall against religious centralisation.
Subsequent expansions of Syariah jurisdiction and administrative religious authority did not occur in isolation. They became possible precisely because Sabah surrendered its original secular constitutional status.
Today, the Momogun (Indigenous communities) are paying the price for that compromise.
Many Sabahans now find themselves trapped in legal limbo over religious identity, forced into unnecessary litigation, and exposed to overlapping jurisdictions—all outcomes that were never contemplated when Sabah agreed to form Malaysia.
This is not accidental. It is the predictable result of embedding religion into State authority.
BoPiMaFo stresses that this issue is not about opposing Islam.
It is about restoring constitutional balance.
It is about protecting Indigenous rights.
It is about honouring MA63 in substance, not merely in rhetoric.
While concerns about federal laws “creeping” into Sabah are justified, such encroachment succeeds only because Sabah weakened its own constitutional defences in 1973.
You cannot defend MA63 externally while violating it internally.
BoPiMaFo therefore supports calls for the 1973 constitutional amendment to be formally placed on the MA63 agenda, and urges the Minister of Sabah and Sarawak Affairs, Mustapha Sakmud, to ensure that upcoming MA63 townhall sessions include this matter, with full participation from non-Muslim religious bodies and Indigenous civil society.
Sabah must return to its original status as a secular and plural founding partner.
Only then can Sabahans credibly demand that the Federal Government honour MA63.
If Sabah truly wishes to reclaim its constitutional dignity, it must begin by correcting what Sabah itself abandoned.
