It is high time that we have a Borneo caucus in which Sarawak and Sabah MPs can present a united voice. This is crucial for several reasons including seeking the restoration of the rights of eastern Malaysians under the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63).
It also gives rise to the possibility of having an East Malaysian prime minister in the future, doing away with the current convention that the premier must be a Malayan.
But the road to this isn’t easy; at least that is my view.
Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department for Sabah and Sarawak Affairs Datuk Seri Maximus Ongkili, who announced the support of East Malaysian MPs for a Borneo caucus earlier this week, said it was history in the making.
“The Sabah and Sarawak MPs fully supported the idea that we should have a common voice to safeguard and implement the tenets and cornerstones of MA63 and a say on who should be the next prime minister,” he said.
Ongkili also said that the Bornean MPs also touched on the possibility of institutionalising the Sabah and Sarawak Affairs Division to offer a permanent framework to implement all its work.
This, he said, is in addition to the formation of a Select Parliamentary Committee to pursue the recommendations of the Special Council on MA63 (MKMA63) that has been fully agreed to by the Cabinet and Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob.
“We are satisfied with the reactions and feedback we received from the MPs on both sides.
“It was an interactive session. The next step will be to formalise political cooperation and potential working relationship among the Borneo parties,” Ongkili, who is Kota Marudu MP, said.
However, this Borneo faction or rather, alliance, is not new. Opposition parties WARISAN and Parti Sarawak Bersatu (PSB) had similar ideas not too long ago.
Sometime last February I wrote in this column about how the proposed alliance between these two opposition parties was not at all convincing.
The reason given then was that although the parties were fairly new, the main leaders had been in politics for quite a while.
If the main idea was to fight for eroded rights under the MA63, I don’t think the leaders of these parties have the wherewithal and credibility as they have spotty track records.
WARISAN has been in the Sabah state government from 2018 to 2020 and did not voice out matters under MA63 while being part of the Pakatan Harapan (PH) federal government.
Observers had noted that while the party was in the government, it adopted a “wait and see” approach when it came to asserting its rights to enforce the State Sales Tax (SST). It did nothing despite noticing that Sarawak faced a harrowing fight in the courts to do just that.
Similarly, PSB, which was part of the federal government, was marred by project cancellations in Sarawak.
I still stand by what I said that parties in the Borneo alliance (if it is established) have a lot of undesirables or excess baggage because their leaders did not do what they should have done.
So where does this leave us now? With a Borneo caucus, I hope that the dream of Sarawak and Sabah to have an East Malaysia prime minister would come true.
If an East Malaysian is in the running to become prime minister, then he must be an agreeable choice in the eyes of Sarawak and Sabah and not just a decoy by Malayan parties to get our support and have another prime minister candidate being parachuted into the final seconds.
Sarawak and Sabah must identify areas where they can work together beyond party lines and make sure that their objectives are not dictated by parties in Kuala Lumpur.
Developing basic infrastructure projects including public utilities such as telecommunication, electricity and water supplies is as paramount as stimulating the economy and eradicating poverty.
We have a long way to go and a lot on the line, so let us not be divided by partisan (and petty) politics.
A Borneo caucus must unite Sarawak and Sabah MPs to inject a sense of sanity and act as a foil to Malayan MPs.
Political support from Borneo states nowadays is much sought after. Let’s make good use of that advantage to get our demands across.
