The 20-point agreement drawn up by Sabah leaders during the negotiations prior to the formation of Malaysia in 1963 is still relevant because 17 out of the 20 points were taken into consideration and incorporated into what later become the Federal Constitution.

 

Umno supreme council member Abdul Rahman Dahlan said the three other points, including about the official religion for Sabah, was not finalised then as Sabah leaders had different opinions on the need for the state to have an official religion.

Abdul Rahman, who is also urban wellbeing, housing and local government minister, however, said that in 1973, when Mustapha Harun was the chief minister of Sabah, the motion to make Islam the official religion of the state was passed unanimously by the State Legislative Assembly.

"In 1973, Tun Datu Mustapha tabled the motion to make Islam the official religion of the state at the State Assembly sitting and it was debated by Muslim, Christian and Chinese assemblymen before being passed unanimously."

He said this at the public forum and dialogue titled 'Sabah: Inside or Outside Malaysia' here today. The other panelist at the forum was Penampang member of parliament Darrel Leiking.

In the original agreement, point 1 states that: “While there was no objection to Islam being the national religion of Malaysia, there should be no State religion in North Borneo, and the provisions relating to Islam in the present Constitution of Malaya should not apply to North Borneo.”

            

Give and take

On Borneonisation, the minister refuted the allegation that the posts of heads of federal departments, agencies and statutory bodies in Sabah were monopolised by officers from the peninsula.

He said based on statistics, majority of the posts were being held by Sabahans.

However, Abdul Rahman said he disagreed if Borneonisation meant that the posts must be held only by Sabahans because it would contravene the concept of Malaysia as a federal country.

Hence, he said some of the federal departments and agencies should be led by officers from other states based on the concept of give-and-take.

On government's effort to overcome poverty in Sabah, he said it was a continuous effort and to date, the poverty rate had been reduced to eight percent from over 60 per cent in the 1950s and 1960s.

He said the people in Sabah cannot deny the government's success in reducing the poverty rate because even a developed country like the United States had a poverty rate of over 10 percent.

- Bernama