KOTA KINABALU – A team of experts and researchers from Sabah, together with officials from Putrajaya, is set to travel to London to retrieve all documents related to the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63) available there, Datuk Seri Maximus Ongkili, the minister in the Prime Minister’s Department for Sabah and Sarawak affairs, announced today.
The team will be led by Ongkili, who is also MP for Kota Marudu, himself. They are scheduled to operate in London, focusing on scouring the archives there, for about a week after arriving on June 19.
“Preliminary research shows over 300 documents referring to our rights and matters related to the MA63 are at the National Archives in London.
“There have been so many misconceptions and it is time to set the records right.
“MA63 is not just an agreement, therefore we need all the facts and figures to enable us to make claims that are rightfully ours,” he said.
Ongkili stressed that it is vital for the team’s members to do their homework, so that the rights of Sabah and Sabahans are protected.
A similar move was carried out by the Sarawak government six years back.
“We are excited as finally we can get hold and access these confidential documents, which have now been declassified at the National Archives.
“We hope to get better insights on what transpired prior to our independence in 1963,” he said.
Sabah, then known as North Borneo, achieved self-government, after previously been ruled by the British, on August 31, 1963.
It later united with Malaya, Sarawak and Singapore to form Malaysia on September 16, 1963. Singapore separated from this arrangement to become a sovereign nation on August 9, 1965.
Recently, the Sabah Law Society called on the state to establish its own historical conservatory to seek more understanding of the claim by descendants of the Sulu royalty in the southern Philippines over Sabah’s territory.
The handling of the claim had contributed to friction between Sabah and the federal government.
In a Berita Harian report in April, Malaysian National Archive Department director-general Jaafar Sidek Abdul Rahman said millions of Malaysian documents that could be used as evidence to uphold national sovereignty are still in foreign countries like the United Kingdom and India.
Among those in the team headed to London are Sabah Attorney-General Datuk Nor Asiah Mohd Yusof; Sabah’s envoy to the Brunei Darussalam–Indonesia–Malaysia–Philippines East Asean Growth Area Tan Sri Pandikar Amin Mulia.
They are joined by legal and top officials from the federal ministerial office on Sabah and Sarawak affairs, and the Sabah and Sarawak Affairs Department, as well as the Sabah Chief Minister’s Department.
Ongkili said that additional representatives from the Sabah government may join, adding the list is still being finalised. – The Vibes, June 14, 2022
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