Kota Kinabalu: The Sabah Body Advocating Rights (Sabar) congratulated the Sabah Law Society (SLS) and its legal team for their historic victory in securing Sabah’s constitutional rights through the recent High Court ruling.
Sabar commended the SLS legal team for their perseverance since 2021 in championing justice for Sabah, noting also that the team acted on a pro bono basis.
“Sabah and the people of Sabah will forever be indebted to the legal team. They acted without fear or favour and succeeded in establishing the rights and guarantees that were and are constitutionally protected in favour of Sabah,” the statement read.
“While many have spoken about Sabah’s 40 per cent entitlement for decades, no one had the courage to challenge it in a court of law. Sabah has now been vindicated.
This is a victory for the people of Sabah,” Sabar said.
The group expressed readiness to assist both the State Government and SLS in implementing the court’s orders, particularly in computing the 40 per cent entitlement for the “Lost Years.”“This judgment will go down in history as proof that Sabah had the courage and integrity to pursue justice for her people.
Let us now join hands to ensure that justice is fully served. This now rests with those in power,” they said.
Sabar described the court decision as timely, coming on the eve of the 17th Sabah state election, and urged politicians and aspiring candidates to take heed of its significance.
The organisation reiterated its long-standing commitment to advocating justice for Sabah as guaranteed under the Federal Constitution, saying it stood in solidarity with SLS in defending the state’s constitutional entitlements.
Meanwhile, CALM (Commonwealth Association of Leadership Malaysia) praised the SLS team for displaying courage and going against the grain to ensure justice for Sabah is upheld.
“The SLS team will serve as an inspiration to generations beyond Gen Z and all those who thought that what had been agreed to Sabah but which failed to materialise due to omission, neglect or weakness of past leaders do not become a foregone conclusion,” said its President Ms Yap Li Ling.
CALM has decided to present the complete five sets of the “William Goode Private Papers” in the belief that the contents would be valuable for the team in their future work to regain lost or forgotten MA63 rights.
Sir William Goode was the last colonial Governor of British North Borneo and had reservations over the speed at which the Malaysia negotiations were taking place and conveyed this to Whitehall, but without much success.
Goode preferred more time, including for at least the first batch of the Colombo Plan scholars to be involved in shaping the territory’s future. He noted that all Sabah had was one senior Cambridge level educated negotiator while the Malayans and Singaporeans, in particular, had no shortage of experienced lawyers.
Goode was also noted for declaring Aug.31, 1963 as “Sabah Day” in the Legislative Council despite strong protests by first Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman.
He ordered the Union Jack to be lowered on that day (Aug.31), which meant when the Borneo territories joined in forming Malaysia 16 days later, they did so with self-government status and had a de facto state cabinet who were appointed while he was still Governor acting on behalf of the Queen.
The postponing of Malaysia’s formation to Sept. 16, 1963 was due to a last-minute protest by Indonesia’s Sukarno and Philippines Macapagal.
Sarawak declared July 22 as Sarawak independence day effective 2016, followed by Sabah under the Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) government in 2023.
Goode’s widow stumbled upon volumes of material penned by Goode, including his correspondences with Whitehall and other leaders, many of them stamped “top Secret” but have since been declassified. She left them with the Oxford Library which granted CALM access.