By the Voice of the Borneo Third Force — The Awakening of the Archipelago
By Andrew Ambrose Atama Katama
KOTA KINABALU: This trade pact is not diplomacy — it’s the selling of a nation.
The so-called Malaysia–US Reciprocal Trade Agreement is not “reciprocal” at all.
It is a modern chain of economic servitude, signed by an unelected minister, Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz — a corporate envoy, not a people’s representative.
It hands Malaysia’s economic sovereignty to Washington in exchange for token tariff crumbs. And as history repeats, Borneo is sold together with it, as collateral under Malaya’s submission.
Malaysia is no longer non-aligned — it’s a proxy.
Articles 5.1 and 5.3 grant the United States a veto over Malaysia’s future trade policy and force Malaysia to mirror Washington’s sanctions on other nations. That means if the US launches a trade war on China, Vietnam, or anyone else, Malaysia must follow — even if it destroys our own industries. That is not partnership. That is vassalage. It’s the same colonial structure reborn — only this time, the “adviser” sits in Washington, and the “sultan” resides in Putrajaya.
Petronas has been shackled — forced to buy from the empire.
A clause compelling Petronas to purchase RM10 billion of US LNG every year is economic coercion. Petronas, built by the struggles of Dr Adenan Satem and Dr Jeffrey Kitingan to defend our national resources, is now reduced to a captive customer of Wall Street energy giants. This is not trade — this is the auctioning of Malaysia’s sovereignty.
They attack our GLCs but elevate foreign capital.
Article 6.2 forbids Malaysia from supporting its own State-Owned Enterprises and MSMEs, while guaranteeing a “level playing field” for American corporations. This is pure IMF-style neoliberal imperialism — free markets for them, chains for us. EPF, PNB, Tabung Haji, FELDA, all are left unprotected, while US corporations gain privileged access to our markets. That’s not reform — that’s economic disarmament.
Malaya has become what it once claimed to resist — a colonial administrator.
Dr Mahathir calls this neo-colonialism — and for once, he is right. But the irony is bitter: this colonial architecture was built by Malaya’s own elites, the same system that reduced Sabah and Sarawak to fiscal appendages. Now that Malaya itself kneels to Washington, its sub-colonies in Borneo are doubly trapped — first under Putrajaya, then under America’s empire.
Sabah and Sarawak will bear the heaviest cost.
When federal sovereignty is surrendered, Borneo’s autonomy evaporates entirely. Under this pact, all national trade, energy, and digital decisions are dictated from Washington through Kuala Lumpur — leaving no space for state-level consent or consultation. Our 40 percent revenue entitlement, our oil royalties, and our resource rights under MA63 can now be overridden by “national alignment obligations” to US interests.
That is the death of federalism — the final burial of Borneo’s self-government promise.
Cultural colonisation follows economic capture.
By removing Malaysia’s 80 percent local content rule and granting US media unrestricted prime-time access, this pact floods our airwaves with foreign propaganda and consumer culture. Borneo’s languages, stories, and indigenous identity will be sidelined once again. It’s the same erasure that began under British films in the 1950s —
now revived through streaming algorithms and “soft power” from California.
The Halal clause is not about religion — it’s about control.
By allowing any US-approved halal logo to enter our markets, this agreement undermines Malaysia’s own certification authority and exposes Borneo’s Muslim communities to regulatory chaos. This is a direct blow to Malaysia’s sovereignty and to the Islamic institutions of Sabah and Sarawak —
handing moral authority to foreign certifiers sanctioned by Washington’s commerce department.
Digital surrender is total — data colonialism in disguise.
The ban on digital taxes for US companies and the removal of the 6 percent Universal Service Fund contribution mean that Big Tech will profit freely while local telcos still pay. This widens Malaysia’s digital divide and pushes Sabah and Sarawak further into data dependency.
It is not progress — it’s a digital plantation economy where Silicon Valley owns the servers, and Borneo provides the data labour.
Borneo must resist this dual colonial trap.
This pact exposes how fragile the federation has become. If Putrajaya can surrender national sovereignty without consulting Sabah and Sarawak, then the Federation Agreement has lost moral legitimacy. Borneo must assert its right to self-governance — to control its own resources, trade, and digital infrastructure
in solidarity with the Global South, not under Western command.
The Dire Implications to Sabah & Sarawak
First, the governments of Sabah and Sarawak must immediately invoke their residual economic and legislative powers under MA63 to exempt their state enterprises and land-based industries from any clause that restricts local autonomy.
They must form a Borneo Economic Coordination Council (BECC) to review all federal agreements with foreign powers before ratification.
Second, Borneo must develop South-South trade partnerships — with ASEAN, Pacific, and African nations — to escape dependency on Malaya’s Western-aligned trade routes.
A Borneo-led *East Indies Economic Corridor* would restore regional balance,
grounding our sovereignty in shared development, not subservience.
The Call of the Third Force
“Sabah Merdeka! Sarawak Merdeka!
We do not bow to Washington, nor to Putrajaya!
We are the people of this land — not a province for sale!”
The Borneo Third Force stands for liberation through self-government, for trade based on equality, and for solidarity with oppressed nations everywhere.
From the mountains of Kinabalu to the rivers of Rajang, the cry grows louder:
“Reclaim the Land. Reclaim the Future. Reclaim Borneo.”
