Malaysia Agreement


The Malaysia Agreement or the Agreement relating to Malaysia between United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Federation of Malaya, North Borneo, Sarawak and Singapore was the agreement which combined North Borneo, Sarawak, and Singapore with the existing states of the Federation of Malaya, the resulting union being named Malaysia. Singapore was later expelled from Malaysia, becoming an independent state on 9 August 1965.

Background

The Malayan Union was established by the British Malaya and comprised the Federated Malay States of Perak, Selangor, Negeri Sembilan, Pahang; the Unfederated Malay States of Kedah, Perlis, Kelantan, Terengganu, Johor; and the Straits Settlements of Penang and Malacca. It came into being in 1946, through a series of agreements between the United Kingdom and the Malayan Union. The Malayan Union was superseded by the Federation of Malaya on 1 February 1948, and achieved independence within the Commonwealth of Nations on 31 August 1957.
After the end of the Second World War, decolonisation became the societal goal of the peoples under colonial regimes aspiring to achieve self-determination. The Special Committee on Decolonisation was established in 1961 by the General Assembly of the United Nations with the purpose of monitoring implementation of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples and to make recommendations on its application. The committee is also a successor to the former Committee on Information from Non-Self-Governing Territories. Hoping to speed the progress of decolonisation, the General Assembly had adopted in 1960 the :s:United Nations General Assembly Resolution 1514|Resolution 1514, also known as the "Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples" or simply "Declaration on Decolonisation". It stated that all people have a right to self-determination and proclaimed that colonialism should be brought to a speedy and unconditional end.
Under the Malaysia Agreement signed between Great Britain and the Federation of Malaya, Britain would enact an act to relinquish sovereign control over Singapore, Sarawak and North Borneo. This was accomplished through the enactment of the Malaysia Act 1963, clause 1 of which states that on Malaysia Day, "Her Majesty’s sovereignty and jurisdiction in respect of the new states shall be relinquished so as to vest in the manner agreed".

Decolonisation, self-determination and referendum

The issue of self-determination with respect to the peoples of North Borneo, Sarawak, and Singapore formed the bedrock of yet another challenge to the formation of the Federation of Malaysia. Under the Joint Statement issued by the British and Malayan Federal Governments on 23 November 1961, clause 4 provided: Before coming to any final decision it is necessary to ascertain the views of the peoples. It has accordingly been decided to set up a Commission to carry out this task and to make recommendations........
In the spirit of ensuring that decolonisation was carried in accordance with the wishes of the peoples of North Borneo, the
British Government, working with the Federation of Malaya Government, appointed a Commission of Enquiry for North Borneo and Sarawak in January 1962 to determine if the people supported the proposal to create a Federation of Malaysia. The five-man team, which comprised two Malayans and three British representatives, was headed by Lord Cobbold.
In Singapore, the People's Action Party sought merger with Malaysia on the basis of the strong mandate it obtained during the general elections of 1959 when it won 43 of the 51 seats. However, this mandate became questionable when dissension within the Party led to a split. In July 1961, following a debate on a vote of confidence in the government, 13 PAP Assemblymen were expelled from the PAP for abstaining. They went on to form a new political party, the Barisan Sosialis, the PAP’s majority in the Legislative Assembly was whittled down as they now only commanded 30 of the 51 seats. More defections occurred until the PAP had a majority of just one seat in the Assembly. Given this situation, it would have been impossible to rely on the mandate achieved in 1959 to move forth with merger. A new mandate was necessary, especially since the Barisan argued that the terms of merger offered were detrimental to the Singapore people.. In order to allay these concerns, a number of Singapore-specific provisions were included in the Agreement.
While Brunei sent a delegation to the signing of the Malaysia Agreement, they did not sign as the Sultan of Brunei wished to be recognised as the senior ruler in the federation.
On 11 September 1963, just four days before the new Federation of Malaysia was to come into being, the Government of the State of Kelantan sought a declaration that the Malaysia Agreement and Malaysia Act were null and void, or alternatively, that even if they were valid, they did not bind the State of Kelantan. The Kelantan Government argued that both the Malaysia Agreement and the Malaysia Act were not binding on Kelantan on the following grounds that the Malaysia Act in effect abolished the Federation of Malaya and this was contrary to the 1957 Federation of Malaya Agreement that the proposed changes required the consent of each of the constituent states of the Federation of Malaya – including Kelantan – and this had not been obtained.

Documents

2019 review of the agreement

After the Proposed 2019 amendment to the Constitution of Malaysia on the equal status of Sabah and Sarawak failed to pass, the Malaysian federal government agreed to review the agreement to remedy breaches of the treaty with the "Special Cabinet Committee To Review the Malaysia Agreement" and directed a Special Task Force Team to prepare a final report on the 1963 agreement before 31 August 2019, to be tabled at the next meeting of the Special Cabinet Committee. On 23 July 2019, seven issues concerning the 1963 agreement had reached joint agreement while 14 issues still required further discussion and were expected to be resolved before the deadline of 31 August. The seven agreed issues were:
The first meeting on the issues was held on 17 December 2018 at which 21 issues were received by the special Cabinet committee for review. 13 issues were identified as joint issues involving both the Sarawak and Sabah governments, and eight as issues involving only the Sabah government. Despite the willingness of the federal government to review the agreement, reports have arisen that the negotiations between Sabah and the federal government have not been smooth, with the latter dictating some terms of the review, causing perception of the review as a one-sided affair in which the federal government seeks to maintain control in several matters.