Sabah Sarawak Rights - Australia New Zealand (SSRANZ)

KUCHING: Petronas has no right to keep the Sarawak government in the dark about the amount of oil and gas reserves in Sarawak, Parti Bumi Kenyalang president Voon Lee Shan said.

He said this following Sarawak Chief Minister Abang Johari Openg’s claim that Petronas had refused to disclose any data or information on the state’s oil and gas reserve to the state government.

“Petronas also has no right to keep the Sarawak government in the dark about the amount of oil and gas pumped or extracted each day.

“Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) should take this as a legitimate excuse to seek exit or declare Sarawak independent from the federation of Malaysia,” Voon said at a press conference here today.

He said the GPS government should know that with “economic suppression and political differences”, international law could allow Sarawak to break away from the federation.

“Sarawak can do this by a unilateral declaration of independence (UDI), similar to Kosovo from Serbia in 2008,” he said.

Voon said the exploitation of the state’s oil and gas resources by the federal government through Petronas had “cut” into the hearts of every Sarawakian.

He urged the GPS government to not negotiate, discuss or raise this matter with Putrajaya any longer but to call for an emergency state assembly sitting to declare Sarawak independent with immediate effect.

Voon, a practicing lawyer, said all laws passed by Parliament to shift the continental shelf or coastlines of Sarawak for the purpose of allowing Petronas to take Sarawak’s oil and gas were against international law.

“Any territorial shift is an infringement of the international law which states that an existing boundary of a colony or country merging with another cannot be changed.

“The passing of the Sea Territorial Act 2012 and the Continental Shelf Act 1966, including the Petroleum Development Act 1974, not being ratified by the state legislature is also unconstitutional,” he said.

Voon said the spirit and purpose of Malaysia, which was supposed to be founded on equal rights, equal status, an equal partnership, were not present.

“Malaysia is not a new nation but is, according to the records in the United Nations, a country called Malaya which on Sept 16, 1963, took a new name after Singapore, Sabah and Sarawak became part of the territory of Malaya.

“Malaysia’s first premier Tunku Abdul Rahman had mentioned in a book titled ‘Conversations with Tunku Abdul Rahman’ written by Tan Sri Abdullah Ahmad that Sabah and Sarawak were ‘gifts’ by Britain to Malaya,” he said.

Voon said it was not the Borneo founding fathers’ intention on the formation of Malaysia to see Sabah and Sarawak become “Malaya’s colony”.

Source: Free Malaysia Today

KUCHING: Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad has told Parliament that action will only be taken under the Sedition Act against those who call for Sarawak’s secession from Malaysia if they jeopardised public order and security.

The prime minister said this was in line with the government’s policy to promote freedom of speech, Malaysiakini reported today.

“In line with the government’s policy to promote freedom of speech as per Item 1 of Article 10 in the Federal Constitution, the use of provisions under the Sedition Act will only be utilised in cases where an act of sedition creates a situation that is beyond control that it jeopardises the security and public order,” he said.

Dr Mahathir was reported to have said this in a written reply to DAP’s Lanang MP Alice Lau, which was released in Parliament yesterday.

Lau had asked what action the government could take against those who call for Sarawak’s secession and if such secession is allowed by the Federal Constitution and Malaysia Agreement 1963.

Dr Mahathir also said several other laws under the Penal Code, including Section 121 for waging war against the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, could be used if it involved an act or the preparation for an act of violence, such as the use of firearms.

According to the written reply, there was also no provision under the Federal Constitution, the Malaysia Agreement 1963 or the Inter-Governmental Committee Report that touched on any rights by Sabah and Sarawak to secede from Malaysia.

Dr Mahathir pointed out that the right to secede from Malaysia was also not suggested for the terms in Malaysia’s formation, as could be seen in the Cobbold Commission Report.

Source: Borneo Post

The first year of SSRANZ has been a year of challenging progress in terms of the Sabah Sarawak Rights agenda, with some key achievements.

As a Goodwill Ambassador, I am pleased to be able to arrange some diplomatic meetings with some government ministers and non-government organisation to discuss Sabah and Sarawak legal issues concerning the current status of the Borneo states of Sabah and Sarawak.

The SSRANZ is fully committed to raise the issues with the Commonwealth Lawyers Association to upholding “The Rule of Law” on the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63), based on the reason that the treaty has been terminated by multiple federal government violations, abuses and dishonoured for more than 55 years rendering the treaty as no longer binding on Sabah and Sarawak.

Presenting the Sabah Sarawak struggles at the Human Rights Conferences and Forum were part of the initiative carried into action plan since the past two years to promote awareness of the Sabah Sarawak justice mission to the international authority.

During the diplomatic visits, the current situation in Sabah Sarawak Borneo being advocated to promote justice concerning mass deforestation, horrible destruction by logging, palm plantation, and hydro dams in Borneo's Rain forests caused by human's greed causing 90% of the lowland of Borneo rain forest has gone, for the production of palm oil.

The Indigenous Natives of Borneo continue to suffer from the loss of their Native Land.

The burning and felling of the jungle led to the destruction of the natural habitat and also killing of many local animals like the Orang Utans and Borneo pygmy elephants.

The Sabah Land Ordinance has been manipulated by land grabbers and the rights of the Native Customary Rights violated.

The Malayan Government made a promise in 1963 to especially safeguard the rights of the Borneo native people under the terms of the Malaysia Agreement 1963.

However, under the Malaysian Government’s “watch”, it has allowed its police to used by local authorities to evict the people of Sabah (and Sarawak) from their land by force so as to alienate their land to commercial agricultural companies, many of which are from Malaya.

The Malaysian government is on the lookout to stop foreign journalists who are trying to expose the corruption since two Global Witness investigators caught Taib Mahmud's family members red-handed on hidden cameras admitting to their under-the-table commission land deals (including a three-thousand-hectares concession of rain forest).

There's no 'Freedom of expression' in these issues as it could be dangerous to challenge the rampant commercial activities in the native land. The Malaysian government has permitted the destruction of the native's people homeland and sources of livelihood and the environment in the process of so-called economic development with a colonial one-crop economy of palm oil plantations.

The formation of Malaysia was justified by the main reason that federation was to develop Sabah and Sarawak.

However, this “federation” became a vehicle for long-term human rights abuses in Sabah and Sarawak since 1963 especially failure to eradicate poverty and raise living standards.

The abuses cover a wide range of matter including failure to access to basic amenities such as clean water, education, hospital, tarred road in the rural area, discrimination, oppression, demographic structure, ethnic cleansing, violation of international law in relation to the Malaysia Agreement 1963 and Petroleum Development Act 1974.

Collecting sign petition of ‘Calling for Sabah Sarawak Rights’ are part of the undertaking chore that I carried to support the justice mission by the Sabah Sarawak Union – United Kingdom (Australia Chapter).

I always promoted the people’s rights, struggles and dignity as part of my discussions in every diplomat visit that I have attended. It is a vital part of seeking justice for the people of Sabah Sarawak Borneo in a damaged political system. Many people have come to see that the idea of Formation of Malaysia was only to colonise Sabah and Sarawak for the Malaya’s benefits, while the people of Borneo are struggled and ignored

KUCHING, Aug 11: Parti Bumi Kenyalang (PBK) is engaging an international lawyer from the United States of America (US), Judge Dr Te Whetu O Rongo to pursue its case for Sarawak’s independence.

During PBK’s first Central Committee dinner here on Sunday (Aug 11), Rongo, who was asked by party president Voon Lee Shan to help PBK to pursue the state’s independence, said the first step was to bring the case to the Federal Court and declare that the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63) is a fraud.

“In the Sarawak Land Ordinance 1958, it talks about customary law and customary land law because the state shall recognise customary law and ‘adat’ (custom). The question now arises, when Malaya decided to come into Sarawak they only followed the English law but they did not take into consideration about the ‘adat’, but ‘adat’ is part of the international law.

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