When East Malaysia looks at the “Malayans”, they are increasingly seeing a debt-addicted society that is in love with religious and racial rhetoric and whose political arrangement is likely in a state of irredeemable mess.
As an icing on the cake, the East Malaysians also feel that they are being exploited and looked down upon by the “Malayans”.
Who can blame them?
From the cabotage policy to the lopsided distribution of the oil and gas revenue, the dissatisfaction of the East Malaysians against Malaya is deep and longstanding.
Just September last year, our then Prime Minister Ismail Sabri had agreed that East Malaysia deserves 35 percent of the seats in the Dewan Rakyat. It has been almost a year since the matter was agreed upon, but up to today, nothing has happened. Today, nobody even bothers talking about the 35 percent agenda anymore.
When he first came to power, PMX Anwar heroically declared that all matters related to MA63 will be resolved in a month.
MA63 to the uninitiated, is an agreement that Sabah and Sarawak had made with the Peninsular before forming Malaysia, in order to ensure that they will be treated as an equal partner in the federation.
Despite the agreement being 60 years old, and despite the assurances given by Anwar that all matters pertaining to it will be resolved in 1 month, East Malaysia is still nowhere close to feeling like it is an equal partner in the federation today.
What do you call an agreement that is still pending after 60 years despite multiple reassurances by multiple parties that it will be honoured? Will you not call it an insult?
East Malaysia is not some basket case region that nobody wants.
It is actually a very desirable region, with great potential, strategic location and abundance of natural resources.
Indonesia is already planning to make Borneo the centre of its nation. Its capital, the new city of Nusantara, will be up and running in 2024. Once Nusantara is up and running, Putrajaya will not be the capital city that is most influential in Sabah and Sarawak.
Singapore is a rich, technologically advanced and well-connected city-state. It has great synergy with Borneo which is resource rich and spacious. In 1965, when Singapore separated from the federation, Sabah and Sarawak decided to stay with the peninsula. Just because they decided to stay with us then, it doesn’t mean that they can’t decide to go to Singapore in the future.
We know that the South China Sea is going to be one of the main theatres of contention between China and the West. We don’t know what is going to transpire in their contention, but what we do know is that we do not need Sabah and Sarawak to be frustrated with us when the two main superpowers in the world are trying to exert their influence in their backyard. If either one of these two superpowers does not get the cooperation of Putrajaya when they pursue their interest in the South China Sea, there is no reason for us to believe that they might not promote secession in East Malaysia to secure their interest by some other means.
Sabah let us not forget, has long been claimed by the Philippines. To secure the support of the Philippines in the South China Sea, the West or China could simply support or recognise the secession of Sabah.
While our politicians in Putrajaya are busy squabbling amongst themselves for their own self-interest, let us be reminded that we are not the centre of the world and Sabah and Sarawak do not have to wait for us to settle our matter before their matter can be addressed.
I have long suggested the need for building a capital city in East Malaysia both to assuage the dissatisfaction the East Malaysians feel towards the peninsular and better manage the influence of China, Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore and the West in East Malaysia.
The building of a new capital city in the east is just one option that we can pursue. The main thing is that we must start to pay attention to what is going on in the East, and stop acting like we are the centre of the world and everything has to wait until we have sorted ourselves out.
We must stop this delusion that Sabah and Sarawak will never leave us because we are that loveable.
If we want Sabah and Sarawak to stay with us, we have to work on our relationship.
The leaders of our country in Putrajaya need to wake up to the fact that there is no point in fighting for the captain’s seat if the ship called Malaysia itself is sinking.
Fix the boat first.
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