Kota Kinabalu: Sabah may celebrate its own independence day – also known as Sabah Day – on Sept. 1 this year.
Deputy Chief Minister I Datuk Seri Dr Jeffrey G. Kitingan said the State Cabinet discussed the date to mark the day the colonial administration officially ceased its role on Aug. 31, 1963 resulting in two weeks of self-rule or self-government before jointly forming Malaysia on Sept. 16 the same year.
He said a final decision had yet to be made because Aug. 31 is already a holiday to mark the independence of Malaya.
“If we stick to the same date (Aug 31), is also okay because it is also Sabah’s independence (Aug. 31, 1963). But we only celebrate Sabah Day and not Malaya’s independence.
SPONSORED CONTENT Sabah International Convention Centre’s Big Sabah Sale a big hit Kota Kinabalu: The Sabah International Convention Centre’s (SICC) Big Sabah Sale which concluded on Sunday saw a good response with about 20,000 visitors during the three-day extravaganza. . Read more “Why should we celebrate Malaya’s independence? Even Sarawak is not celebrating it anymore,” said Dr Jeffrey, who is also State Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food Industry, when officiating the “Kembara Apresiasi Sabah Day” at Padang Merdeka here.
He received Sabah flags from runners of the Sabah Tanah Airku Countdown Mega Run 2023, uniting runners from 28 districts and Labuan, at the event.
“Our nationality is Malaysian and the National Day should be Sept 16 while Aug 31 happened to have two celebrations – one is Malaya’s independence and second is Sabah’s independence.
“We cannot be made to celebrate the independence of Malaya because it is not our (Sabah) independence.
“Therefore, in 2023, we managed to do it (celebrate) the so-called National Day in the morning and in the afternoon, the Sabah Day celebration,” he said.
Dr Jeffrey questioned why Sabah was celebrating Malaya’s independence on Aug. 31 when it should be Sept 16 since that was the date Sabah, Sarawak and Malaya (peninsula) came together to form Malaysia.
“I have said this many times but nobody listened. If we celebrate Malaya’s independence as our national day, it means they have taken over us and we don’t have our own standing. This is very important to take note of.
“Some historical incidents were left out or dropped (from the history books),” he said, referring to the signing of the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63) on July 9, and the declaration of Malaysia on Sept 16, 1963.
“On July 9, Sabah and Sarawak were still colonies and we signed the Malaysia Agreement as colonies, but our founding fathers wanted us to be independent before forming Malaysia.
“They made us sign the MA63 while we were still colonies which means we don’t have the power. The power was with the colonial masters which were the British and Malaya and we (Sabah and Sarawak) just followed.
“But in between getting the independence, the British said on Aug 31, 1963, that we had our own government (Sabah’s independence).
“And then, we were in the position to sign our own power with our own standing, not as a colony but as independent Sabah.
“That is why during the declaration of Malaysia, Sabah and Sarawak were mentioned as `Negara` (Nation) and the Yang Di-Pertuan Negara (Head of a Nation).
To a question, he said there is a need to have books written on Sabah Day and fill in the gaps so that the history on the formation of Malaysia is complete and taught in school.
“Students are not taught about the whole Malaysian history. Now is the time to make sure that the complete history is taught because Malaysia has been recognised, officially, and that is why we have Malaysia Day and it is now a holiday.
“I strongly believe that Sabah should have its own history book, including on Sabah Day.
“We have to do it. If you rely on them (Federal), they will do according to what they view,” he said.
Nonetheless, he said he had seen books written by authors from the peninsula in those days recognising Sabah as a nation before 1976.
“You know what happened in 1976? They took our oil and changed our status from being a nation to a state and the tragedy of Double Six in that year,” he said.
He said celebrating Sabah Day at Tambunan for the first time in 2023 was very significant because after 60 years, Sabah was able to celebrate its own independence.
“We are still fighting for our rights to be restored. Our financial rights and resource rights are two key components yet to be restored.
“But we are discussing it and when we succeed, we can deliver Sabah Maju Jaya (SMJ) aspirations because we need the money and the resources and get our financial revenue rights paid to us,” he said.
Dr Jeffrey said Sabah is lucky because the financial revenue rights (40 per cent net revenue) are embedded in the Constitution as well as in the Inter-Governmental Committee (IGC) Report. Therefore it has become legal and must be implemented.”
On his hope for 2024, he said Sabah needs to reset its goals to move forward. “For the future of Sabah, we have to review and reset our goals because our relationship with the federal government now is different from before my (ISA) detention. A lot of things have happened and changed.”
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