AN informal body, known as Sabah Sarawak Consultative Council (SSCC), has been set up within Malaysia’s opposition party, Parti Keadilan Rakyat (People’s Justice Party) or PKR, to service its Federal-State National Integration Council (FSNIC).
PKR Vice President, Datuk Dr. Jeffrey Kitingan, disclosed in Kota Kinabalu on Feb. 17 under its national integration council, the party has accepted a common policy platform to review the Malaysia Agreement.
According to him, fears and concerns expressed by leaders in Sabah and Sarawak during the months prior to the formation of Malaysia in 1963 have become a reality.
“We have never had a compliance mechanism to ensure that the conditions for the formation of Malaysia are implemented,” he said.
That was why he had taken the initiative to set up the Sabah Sarawak Consultative Council to service the party’s FSNIC.
“We need to move together. The federal and state stand must be similar,” he explained.
Wan Azizah (left) with her husband Anwar Ibrahim and daughter Nurul Ilham (right).
The SSCC held its inaugural meeting in Kota Kinabalu Feb. 21 under Kitingan’s chairmanship during the two-day working visit to Sabah by PKR President Datuk Dr. Wan Azizah Wan Ismail.
Joint Sabah Sarawak Action
Jeffrey said the PKR president came to formalize the SSCC that had a preliminary meeting in Kuching previously and the first formal meeting in Kota Kinabalu kicked off the joint Sabah and Sarawak action in Federal-State ties.
According to him, the agenda for the SSCC is to promote political and economic cohesion in the Borneo states.
“It is an informal body that will service and provide policy inputs into the formal structure of the FSNIC of PKR and to make this council at the national level meaningful and useful,” he explained.
Members of this SSCC consist of 14 each from the two states, comprising “senior leaders”. When pressed to identify who these leaders are, the PRK vice president said they include non-partisan personalities, but are not necessarily politicians.
Dr. Jeffrey G. Kitingan
The SSCC has a “strategic team” to back it up and this team, including professionals, would have various study groups that would focus on many areas of concern, including political and administrative relations.
Topics for Study Groups
Other areas for study by the groups shall include: economic and finance; internal security and national defence; foreign mission and international relations; foreign labour and immigration; and trade.
The informal body would also look into areas such as land and natural resources, education and health, culture and national language, native rights and the indigenous community.
Other areas of study are – environmental protection, national registration, delineation on boundaries for state and federal constituencies, shipping, and fisheries.
Jeffrey said that in order to give “meaningful and factual inputs” to the FSNIC, there is a need for the party’s consultative council for the Borneo states to make “a thorough study” of certain historical and legal documents.
They include the Cobbold Commission Report, the safeguards known as “20 Points” in Sabah and “18 Points” in Sarawak, the Inter-Governmental Committee (IGC) Report, and the Malaysia Agreement itself.
Tunku’s Assurances
The study groups of SSCC would also look into specific assurances and undertakings given by Tunku Abdul Rahman (photo right) and others.
Explaining further the work of these bodies within the PKR opposition party, Jeffrey stressed, “We need to set up a new Malaysia Agreement. It is way off the mark. There has never been a compliance mechanism to implement the conditions for the formation of the Federation.”
He added: “We are trying to put things right. If you look at the fears expressed to the Cobbold Commission… We (Sabah and Sarawak) are not partners now but one of many states including those from former Malaya.”
Fears of Replacing one Master by Another
There were fears of one colonial master (the British) to be replaced by another (Malaya), he said.
“It was clearly spelt out that there should not be a takeover by someone else and that it should be a partnership. Look at what’s happened? We have been taken over by KL through the Umno party,” he said.
That was why, he added, it was important to give “cohesive inputs” to PKR’s national integration council, “so that they can have renewed Federal State relations and so that we are not subjugated”.
Jeffrey said work of the SSCC is an ongoing matter and that the process had just started. He also disclosed that the SSCC would hold its next meeting in Miri on Mar. 21.
He had submitted a report on the outcome of the consultative council’s inaugural meeting to PKR’s top leadership in Kuala Lumpur.
Related article:
Jeffrey Kitingan on Malaysia Day
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Fri, Feb 26, 2010
News & Views, OPINION, Organisation, Politics, Politics