KOTA KINABALU – Sabah needs a new Malaysia Agreement and constitution to move forward following the state polls last September, said Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Seri Jeffrey Kitingan.
He said the Malaysia Agreement 1963 issue has been around for many years, and the time has come for the deal to be replaced as its terms have not turned out “as aspired” after 58 years.
Putrajaya must also restore Sabah’s autonomy, as well as the state and Sarawak’s status as equal partners in the Federation, the Keningau MP told an online forum organised by Society Empowerment and Economic Development of Sabah yesterday.
“Sabah is not moving forward the way we had wanted, as the state has become dependent on the federal government.
“The state also totally relies on the federal government with regard to security, finance, development and many other things. It is not in accordance with our aspiration.
“We want this, but something else becomes something else. This is not the Malaysia we want. The federal-state conflict will never be resolved.
It would be a waste of time if we move forward as it is now... we need a new Malaysia Agreement, or probably create a Malaysian union, where the independent states – Sabah, Sarawak and Peninsular Malaysia – come together on an equal footing.”
He said the peninsula’s influence runs deep in Sabah’s politics, apparent in the number of peninsula-based parties that have contested and won Sabah’s state seats.
Having assemblymen who are members of peninsula-based outfits reduces the role of Sabahan leaders in speaking as equal partners, he said.
“I think we need to get away from that.
“The trend should be Sabah parties dealing with Sabah parties, peninsula parties with theirs in the peninsula, and Sarawak dealing with Sarawak politics.
“Only then can we come together as equal partners at the federal level.”
To a question on the way forward for the state, Jeffrey said there is a need to restore Sabah’s autonomy so that its leaders can run state-based agendas, not those from the peninsula.
Malaysia is not just Malaya as the central power, he added.
He said many young Sabahans do not want to be tied up with the past, and have rejected the “Malaya agenda” that asserts Putrajaya’s dominance over the Borneo states. – The Vibes, May 7, 2021
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