May 2019

SSRANZ Admn May 14, 2019
KUCHING, April 29 2019 — Sarawak Governor Tun Abdul Taib Mahmud today urged Sarawakians to support the state government’s efforts to reclaim their rights enshrined in the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63).

He said he believed that a delegation led by Chief Minister Datuk Abang Johari Openg will continue to take the interests and the development of the state into account in the negotiation to reclaim the rights from Putrajaya.

“The negotiation for the return of the rights, which have been eroded, needs to be carried out with the federal government through a correct channel,” he said at the opening of the Sarawak Legislative Assembly’s session here.

He said a number of committees on MA63 have been formed at the federal and state levels.

“I believe that these committees are the best platforms for us to negotiate and reclaim our rights,” he said, reminding the people not to take rash actions that go beyond the legal boundary which could affect the peace and security of Sarawak.

Taib said he is happy that the leadership of the state government has held a number of negotiations with the federal government to reclaim the state’s rights.

“The state’s rights and interests incorporated in MA63 must be protected and safeguarded,” he said.

On the enforcement of Oil Mining Ordinance 1958 and Gas Distribution Ordinance 2016, the governor said it will help to further boost the state’s revenue for the benefit of the people.

He said the state government has taken a bold step to introduce a 5 per cent sales tax on the export of petroleum and petroleum products, which is expected to generate about RM3.8 billion revenue this year.

“I urge all sectors to support the noble efforts of the state government to diversify the sources of revenue for the state in the interest and wellbeing of the people,” he said.

SSRANZ Admn May 14, 2019

Fong: Amendment Bill must include the term ‘equal status’

KUCHING: State Legal Counsel Dato Sri JC Fong says the Bill to amend Article 1(2) of the Federal Constitution needs to include the term ‘equal status’ to reflect the call of the negotiating parties Sarawak and Sabah.

According to him, the term is important to give the amended provision certainty so that the supreme law on that matter can be easily interpreted by any court of law.

“The term ‘equal status’ must be mentioned in the Federal Constitution because the court of law has no authority to add any word to the (existing) law or article of the Federal Constitution.

“Therefore, ‘equal status’ must be expressly stated in Article 1(2),” he said when met at his office at the State Legislative Assembly Complex in Petra Jaya, here yesterday.

Fong said he found it ‘perplexing’ that politicians debating the Bill did not see the importance of adding the term in the Bill.

He also queried as to why was it difficult to include the term in the amendment Bill, which is aimed to restore the status of Sarawak and Sabah as regions or territories equal to Peninsular Malaysia.

“If the term ‘equal’ appears in Article 121 of the Federal Constitution when referring to the two High Courts – High Court of Malaya and High Court of Sabah and Sarawak – I cannot see the reason why the term could not appear anywhere else in the Federal Constitution,” he said.

When asked if the term was intentionally omitted, Fong said he did not want to speculate on the matter.

“For instance, Article 121 expressly states that the High Court of Malaya and High Court of Borneo (now Sabah and Sarawak) are the same or equal. If these two High Courts can be said to be the same, there is no reason why the two regions, namely Federation of States in Malaya and the two Bornean states, cannot also have an equal status in the constitution,” he argued.

He added that no matter how people try to spin it, there is a ‘glaring shortcoming’ in the proposed amendment as there is nothing in the proposed amendment akin to Article 121, to expressly state that Sarawak and Sabah are of equal status to Peninsular Malaysia.

Fong also pointed out that in the Federal Constitution, there is no recognition of the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63).

“It is important for MA63 to be recognised by the supreme law so that henceforth, any discussion to restore or reclaim the rights of Sabah and Sarawak can be conducted under a document which the Federal Constitution recognises.

“With this put in place, the position of Sabah and Sarawak will be strengthened if discussions are held using a constitutionally-backed document, which is the MA63,” he stressed.

Fong said he hoped all Sarawakians consider the proposed amendment rationally for the sake of the betterment of the current and future generation of Sarawakians.

He also said he hopes for the amendment Bill to be deferred to another date to allow more consultation with stakeholders.

“We must carefully study it (amendment Bill) in order to meet the aspirations of the people of Sabah and Sarawak, which is for the two to be equal partners with Peninsular Malaysia.”

SSRANZ Admn May 14, 2019
Jeremy Corbyn has written to the prime minister condemning her decision to defy a ruling of the UN’s principal court which concluded that Britain should hand back the Chagos Islands to Mauritius.

In a letter to Theresa May, the Labour leader has accused her of disregarding international law and the right of exiled islanders to return to their homeland. His unusual intervention in a highly sensitive case highlights the dangers of Britain’s diplomatic isolation at the UN.

Earlier this year, the international court of justice (ICJ) at The Hague declared the UK’s continued occupation of the Indian Ocean archipelago was illegal.

The UK has retained possession of the Chagos archipelago since Mauritius gained its independence in 1968. The Foreign Office refers to it as British Indian Ocean Territory or BIOT. About 1,500 native islanders were deported so the largest island, Diego Garcia, could be leased to the US as an airbase in 1971. The Islanders have never been allowed to return home.

SSRANZ Admn May 14, 2019
GREETINGS BROS & SISTERS

AN EASTER MESSAGE FOR ALL CHRISTIANS & NON-CHRISTIANS.

For 53 years our people of Sabah and Sarawak have had to bear the heavy cross of a new colonial master forced on us by the creation of "Malaysia".

"Malaysia" was a secret plan of UK in collusion with Malaya to denied us our right to self-determination by entrusting our countries to Malaya in1963.

The right to self-determination is a fundamental right of all nations, countries and peoples which they must be allowed to exercise voluntarily free from external/foreign interference pursuant the 1960 United Nations declaration for the decolonization of colonies and dependencies under Resolution 1514 (XV).

In the 1960s the peoples of Sabah & Sarawak were suddenly confronted with the prospect of becoming free from colonial rule and gaining independence states with the UN Declaration.

The question of independence becomes a vibrant topic of the day.

But it would seem that till today most of us are still in a haze about what independence means and entails.

This reflects how unprepared our people were to take up self-governance after having been kept in a state of colonial subjugation for some 200 years in the case of Sabah and 20 years for Sarawak under Japanese and British colonial rule.

Prior to this Sarawak enjoyed 100 years as an independent state recognized by the USA (1850) and Britain in (1863).

WW2 had acted as a catalyst in shaping British colonial policy because the Japanese invasion of the British colonial territories reveals a weakness in its colonial defense policy.

So in mid-1942, the British Foreign Office began to formulate a new colonial policy to defend its S.E. Asian territories with the plan to merge Malaya, Singapore, Brunei North Borneo and Sarawak under the proposed "Malaya Union".

At the time, Sarawak was an independent state and the Brooke Government in exile rejected this proposal. The rejection was later framed as a condition for British annexation of Sarawak as a crown colony that it would not become part of the Malayan Union.

Thus in 1949 Sarawak (& Sabah) escaped becoming part of the newly formed Malayan Union.

And in the same year the assassination of the second British Sarawak colonial governor Duncan Stewart by members of the anti-Cession movement underlined Sarawak's determination not to be part of Malaya.

However, the British never gave up their plan and in the 1960s the opportunity came for them to revive their idea in collusion with Malaya to consolidate the Borneo territories with Malaya and Singapore as "additions" to the Malayan Federation name changed to "Malaysia".

The British and Malayan governments secretly colluded to deny the Borneo territories to gain independence using the cold war justification that forming Malaysia was the only effective strategy to defend and protect their security from the threat of communist and or any other foreign invasion take-over.

The Borneo people immediately opposed this as a plan by Malaya to take over their countries. (See Lina Soo's Book on The Real Deal- on the history of Sarawak's opposition to Malaysia).

However, their objections were brushed aside as the British and Malayans had secretly decided in 1961 to proceed with their plan as detailed in the declassified colonial documents and the A.J Stockwell's book on "The Making of the Federation of Malaysia".

In Sarawak, before and after the anti-Malaysia Brunei Uprising, Dec 1962, the British had begun to suppress the anti-colonial movement led by the leftwing underground movement.

Britain and Malaya then proceeded to go through the motion of consulting the people by the creation of the Cobbold Commission which comprised only British and Malayan officials tasked to lay the groundwork to form "Malaysia".

The outcome of the "inquiry" was to recommend "formation of Malaysia". The Inter-Government Committee was then set up in 1962 to steer Sabah and Sarawak to accept the "Malaysia Plan" and formulation of the "Malaysia Agreement" an international treaty signed on 9th July 1963.

The validity of the Malaysia Agreement has been questioned as at the time when British representatives and local representative nominees signed the Treaty, both SS were still colonies without capacity as sovereign states to make treaties.

Other aspects of violations of international law principles on treaty making and the UN decolonization declarations adopted in Resolutions 1514 and 1541 added to the question of AM63 validity.

The British & Malayan claim that "Malaysia" was established under UN Resolution 1541 was never fully questioned to this day as to their complete failure to comply with the requirements of that resolution that there be in place a government with sufficient experience & maturity in governance, the people were fully informed of the pros and cons of what was being done and that they were given a free choice to decide on the issues of "merger".

Regardless of all these considerations, the Malayan UN representative fraudulently announced to the UN General Assembly that the Malayan Federation had been enlarged by the addition of 3 new territories and renamed "Malaysia". Thus avoiding the need to apply for admission to the UN as a new nation and facing opposition and objections by other nations on failure to comply with both Resolutions 1514 and 1541.

So on 16 Sept 1963 UK and Malaya re-colonized Sabah and Sarawak under the name of "Malaysia".

For 53 years we have been doubly crushed under the burden of this (a) new colonialism weighted on our backs with outright pillage of our resources & consequent impoverishment of the people with (b) enslavement of our people with the Melayu Raya race religion supremacist apartheid ideology & system.

The new millennium saw a revival of a Sabah and Sarawak nationalism. The campaign started by the Borneo Heritage Foundation was taken up with vigour in Sarawak and we saw from 2013 the revived "Sarawak for Sarawakians" movement surging forward and impacting greatly on the people and also those in power.

The 1960s slogan stirred up Sarawak patriotism and at the same time caused the colonial authorities to ban SAPA (overturned in the High Court on Jan. 2016) and amend their Sedition Act 1948 to suppress any talk of "secession".

The Sarawak State government colluding with Malaya moved to dampen the rising demand for independence with "negotiations" to get back Sarawak "autonomy" an "empowerment rights" which were promised and withheld by Malaya. PM Najib promised before 14,000 people his government would return those rights.

So after 53 years, we were given confirmation from the colonial rulers themselves that not only were we denied of our independence by Malaysia formation but also the minimal rights to even enjoy proper "self-government" as agreed under MA63.

People of Sabah and Sarawak, we can all see the only way we can rid ourselves of this cross "Malaysia" is to throw it off our backs!

It is your choice to free yourselves from this burden or remain enslaved by it!

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