The state governments of Sabah and Sarawak should initiate a move to pass a motion in their respective legislatures demanding a review of the Malaysia Agreement of 1963 as their rights under the agreement have not been honoured.

“We should also review the Petroleum Development Act,” Sabah politician Jeffrey Kitingan said in Kuching yesterday.

Jeffrey ( right ) swore that he would table a motion in the Sabah state assembly demanding that the state government reactivates a federal cabinet committee to review the position of Sabah and Sarawak in the federation of Malaysia, as provided for in the agreement.

He said Sabah had passed a motion to adopt the federal cabinet review committee, which was supposed to carry out the review in 1975, but this was never done.

 “The review, as clearly stated in the Malaysia Agreement, should be carried out every 10 years, but until today, 51 years later, not one review was carried out.

“There was no decision to implement the review as the committee 'died' after its chairperson and then deputy prime minister, Ismail Abdul Rahman, died."

Jeffrey, who is Sabah State Reform Party (Star) chairperson, said when the federal review committee automatically died,  the federal government started to amend the Malaysia Agreement.

Singapore realised from the beginning what was going on and left the federation in 1965, just two years after joining.

“In 1976 Sabah and Sarawak were asked to change the titles of their heads of state from Yang di-Pertua Negara to Yang di-Pertua Negeri. Also then, most of our rights, including our rights to oil and gas were taken away.

“It was at this time that Sabah and Sarawak suddenly became the 12th and 13th states of Malaya, under the new federation of Malaysia,” he said.

Agreement ‘thrown into dustbin’

Jeffrey said the four entities that signed the Malaysia agreement – Malaya, Sabah, Sarawak and Singapore were to take legislative and executive actions to implement the promises and the assurances including the assurance from then prime minister Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra that there would not be political interference by Malaya.

“But they brought Umno to Sabah. This clearly is political interference. Now Malaya is ruling Sabah through Umno,” he added.

He said the federal government just threw away the Malaysia Agreement into a dustbin.

The leaders of Sabah and Sarawak are to blame for not insisting on the implementation and compliance mechanism of the agreement.

Also at this time, Jeffrey said, Malaya took away the rights of Sabah and Sarawak to their natural resources, oil and gas. This was done by forcing the two states to accept the Petroleum Development Act.

“This is where the two states have to challenge the Act, which is illegal in view of the fact that the Malaysia Agreement is supreme. It is even superior to the Federal Constitution,” he said.

Initially, Sabah, he said, refused to sign the petroleum agreement as it had wanted a 50:50 stake in its own resources, which was refused, and then went on to demand 20 percent.

“But now, it is a mere payment of five percent a year. This is cash payment and it is our compensation. Our royalty was waived under the agreement.

“This is important to resolve as the two states need to be paid royalties as they are the owners of oil and gas. These are our resources,” he added, pointing out that the two states must get back control of their oil and gas.

He said calls for the review of the Malaysia Agreement are now getting louder and louder in both Sabah and Sarawak as the people have realised that their rights have been taken away from them.

Jeffrey then called on the leaders of Sabah and Sarawak to rise above their political affiliations, join hands and work together to fight for their common interests and rights.

He was also encouraged, he added, by the assurance of Chief Minister Adenan Satem that the interests of Sarawak would be protected and that he would make sure Umno did not come to the state.