Sabah

Independence and the Making of Malaysia · Chronicle · 6 min read

Why Were Sabah and Sarawak Central to Malaysia Formation?

When Tunku Drew Malaysia in Singapore, Sarawak and North Borneo Already Had Their Own Parties, Fears, and Future Plans

In 1961, Kuala Lumpur placed Sarawak and North Borneo into the Malaysia plan, but these two territories were not blank spaces waiting for others to arrange their fate. Sarawak's political parties worried about swapping colonial masters before achieving independence, while North Borneo's leaders were anxious about land, immigration, religion, and the status of locals; Some also saw opportunities for security, development, and a quicker end to colonial rule. The so-called "joining" was, from the very beginning, a conditional debate.

Independence and the Making of Malaysia · Chronicle · 10 min read

The Twenty Points Are Not Twenty Mantras

What Truly Protects Sabah and Sarawak Are Not the Numbers on Commemorative Posters, But Which Demands Entered Reports, Treaties, the Constitution, and Laws

North Borneo's Twenty Points and Sarawak's Eighteen Points were negotiation demands proposed before the formation of Malaysia, not a written constitution containing twenty or eighteen clauses copied verbatim into a single document. Their importance lies in placing anxieties about immigration, religion, language, land, indigenous status, finance, and representation onto the negotiation table. The Inter-Governmental Committee later translated many of these demands into specific safeguards in its report, the Malaysia Agreement, constitutional amendments, and state laws. Therefore, these demands cannot be dismissed as scrap paper without legal significance, nor can every slogan be directly claimed as an unalterable constitutional provision.

Unity Government and Reform · Debate · 9 min read

Should Sabah and Sarawak's Autonomy Be Expanded?

Sixty Years of the Malaysia Agreement: Contract or One-Way Devolution?

The 1963 Malaysia Agreement promised Sabah-Sarawak autonomy, but the 1976 constitutional amendment downgraded both states to ordinary states, compressing oil royalties from about 40% to 5%. Sabah's poverty rate of 17.7% is three times the national average. Sixty years on, is this a federal debt or an integration dividend?