Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) acting youth chief Christopher Mandut said he was perplexed when reading news reports that Mahathir and his government had vowed to “revive” the MA63 and implement the matters contained there.
Mahathir had recently said he would implement the provisions in the agreement based on the government’s ability to do so.
“First of all, the agreement was never dead that it now needs reviving. It is a living agreement, always has been, that safeguards the rights of the Bornean states and their people.
“Promising to ‘revive’ it means Mahathir does not understand MA63 or he chooses to mislead the people, claiming it was dead before he came along to save the day,” he told FMT today.
Mandut continued that the problem is that Mahathir, during his first stint as the prime minister, prolonged the emergency state in the country, making it impossible for Sabahans to reclaim their rights under the agreement.
Those who dared to do so, such as Parti Solidariti Tanah Airku (STAR) president Jeffrey Kitingan, were put in jail under the draconian Internal Security Act (ISA), he said.
“Perhaps, that is why Mahathir thought the agreement is dead because during his reign of 22 years, he never wanted to give back what Sabah and Sarawak had lost.
“The agreement never bothered him because at the time, the people in Sabah and Sarawak could not demand their rights without being subjected to cruelty and intimidation,” he said.
However, Mandut said Mahathir was facing a different Malaysia where information could not easily be suppressed, thanks to social media that has proven effective in spreading information quickly to the people.
Unlike before, he said the people are more educated about their rights. Research has shown that the agreement is indeed an international agreement that is different from the Federal Constitution, he added.
“I understand that the Federal Constitution has been amended more than 600 times.
“No matter what was done on the constitution, the agreement, which is an international treaty, has always remained intact since it was signed, safe for the one amendment done to change the effective date.
“The MA63 is beyond the Federal Constitution and cannot be changed without the consent of all the signatories, including the UK.
“Whether Mahathir wants it or not, he now has to face his fear of letting Sabah and Sarawak have our rights back,” he said.
Mandut said former prime minister Najib Razak had done much in terms of giving back the Bornean states their rights, including cancelling the ISA and vowing to fill up 90% of the teaching positions in both states with local teachers.
At the same time, he said Najib had shown his deep concern for the people in Sabah and Sarawak during his tenure as prime minister while Mahathir had not even set foot publicly in Sabah since 2013, when he came to give his testimony in the then ongoing Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) on Illegal Immigrants in Sabah.
“He is scheduled to come for the Malaysia Day celebration on Sept 16. I hope, as part of his so-called ‘revival’ of the MA63, he will start by admitting that Sabah, Sarawak and the Federation of Malaya are equal partners in the Federation of Malaysia.
“But sadly, I don’t think that will happen. Judging from his previous actions, he will always look down on Sabah and Sarawak and think of us as nothing but colonies of Malaya,” he said.