Issued by: Borneo’s Plight in Malaysia Foundation (BoPiMaFo
KOTA KINABALU: The Borneo’s Plight in Malaysia Foundation (BoPiMaFo) urges the Federal Government and the Ministry of Communications to reconsider prioritizing a proposed public study on awareness of the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63) over fulfilling concrete, foundational obligations.
Responding to Deputy Communications Minister Teo Nie Ching’s statement in Parliament that “at present, the ministry, through Radio Televisyen Malaysia (RTM) and the Information Department, has not conducted a study to measure public understanding of MA63 and the formation of Malaysia” and that she will “bring the proposal… back for discussion with the ministry… to determine whether the study can be conducted,” BoPiMaFo stresses that measuring public perception does not solve decades of executive non-compliance.
While educating the broader Malaysian public on the constitutional rights of Sabah and Sarawak is necessary, the fundamental issue facing Sabah is not whether regular citizens understand MA63. It is why successive federal administrations systematically neglected mandatory constitutional arrangements.
Article VIII of MA63 mandates the full implementation of the Inter-Governmental Committee (IGC) recommendations, while Article 112D of the Federal Constitution establishes mandatory periodic reviews of Sabah’s special grants. Yet, Sabah’s constitutionally prescribed financial review for 1974 was left unfulfilled, leading to a half-century dispute over federal financial obligations spanning from 1974 to 2021—an omission that remains a subject of high-profile legal proceedings today.
“What Sabah needs right now is not another ministry study asking if the public understands our rights. Sabah needs an independent, unvarnished examination into why foundational assurances—spanning constitutional rights, territorial security, and financial entitlements—were left unresolved for nearly five decades,” said a BoPiMaFo spokesperson.
“It is deeply troubling that a state endowed with vast natural wealth continues to wrestle with severe poverty and development challenges, while simultaneously shouldering persistent security vulnerabilities. The primary defense and security guarantees that persuaded Sabah to join the Federation must be evaluated with the same urgency as our financial rights.”
BoPiMaFo calls on the Federal Government to prioritize full transparency and institutional accountability by taking the following concrete steps:
Publish the Full Historical Record: Disclose all historical records, inter-governmental reviews, negotiations, and internal decisions across past federal and state administrations regarding MA63 implementation, security assurances, and the prolonged failure to conduct Article 112D reviews.
Conduct an Independent Audit of Non-Compliance:
Establish an independent tribunal or commission to evaluate why foundational assurances regarding Sabah’s security safeguards, constitutional rights, and revenue entitlements were neglected for decades.
Execute Binding Redress, Not Just Public Outreach:
Ensure that public awareness efforts are backed by immediate, transparent, and binding execution of all outstanding MA63 obligations rather than symbolic gestures.
Real national integration cannot be achieved by merely gauging public perception through social media metrics or public studies. True integration begins when the Federal Government openly accounts for past non-compliance and fully honours the security, economic, and legal guarantees that convinced Sabah to help form Malaysia in 1963.
