In 2015 there was published a book on the formation of Malaysia with the intriguing title, “The Queen’s Obligation”.
'The leaders and Elites of the Federation of Malaya may do so with impunity to the eleven states but they cannot touch the Borneo states however hard they try to change the Federal Constitution – they cannot change the Inter-Governmental Committee Report or the Malaysia Agreement, 1963.' – Late Zainnal Ajamain.
The letter reminding the Queen of her promise, said that they heard that discussions were taking place about Sarawak’s future and demanded that no action should be taken without their consent.”ADVERTISEMENT In Sarawak a similar concern about the state’s plight was raised when a group of people formed a party called, “Sarawak Association for Peoples’ Aspiration” to highlight the neglect by their state leaders of the rights under MA63. Their aspiration was and still is for the autonomy and the eventual independence of Sarawak.
According to Zainnal, the fate of the two territories and Malaysia was already determined by mid-1962 at the meeting at Chequers between British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan and the Tunku on July 28, 1962. Earlier the Joint Public Statement issued by the British and Malayan governments at the conclusion of the Cobbold Commission survey on August 1, 1961, states, among other things, that the two governments had agreed “in principle” that “the proposed Federation of Malaysia should be brought into being by 31st August, 1963”.
It remained only for the two governments in the plot to agree on what rights and safeguards to grant to them, with the Tunku having the right of the veto over the British as subsequent events would show. Zainnal cites the amendment on July 28, 1976, to Article 1 of the Malaysian Constitution as having the effect of lowering the status of the two states to the status of the states in pre-independent Malaya. The amended Article reads as follows:
It is therefore disingenuous to argue that the amendment sought to “clean up” the Article with the separation of Singapore from the Federation when the net effect of the amendment was to put the two Borneo states on equal footing with the states of Malaya.
At the negotiations over those rights, the British administrators who made up the majority of the members from the two territories in the Inter-Governmental Committee, tried to protect their interests from Kuala Lumpur. Zainnal describes these officers as “the second type, who were working and living in the Borneo territories, love Borneo and empathized with the people…” One such officer was undoubtedly, William Goode, then Governor of North Borneo. Goode had wanted the British Governors to remain for a number of years after Malaysia, but he was rebuffed by Razak:“When we met, there was no progress with regard to the role of the Governors.
“The Tunku instructed Ghazali Shafie and Wong Pow Nee to withdraw from the Commission if that recommendation was to be in the final report. Any right for a state to later secede was expeditiously ruled out, with little or no British objection.” It should be noted that the community leaders of the two territories had publicly expressed their opposition to the scheme, but to no avail. The Sarawak United Peoples’ Party and the United National Kadazan Organization issued a joint statement to that effect in response to the Tunku’s call on July 18, 1961:
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