Wan Junaidi schools PSB on Sarawak’s self-government on July 22, 1963

Dato Sri Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar

KUCHING: Santubong MP Dato Sri Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar has urged Parti Sarawak Bersatu (PSB) to learn history correctly after it lashed out at him for his remark that Sarawak had gained self-rule and not independence on July 22, 1963.

“Therefore, my advice to PSB, please study your history correctly before you start thinking of a bigger thing like governing Sarawak,” the entrepreneur development and cooperative minister said in a statement today, after giving a chronology of the events leading to the said date.

PSB had said on Thursday that it was “shocked and disappointed” with Wan Junaidi’s remarks in a special report in The Borneo Post on Sarawak Day, on Wednesday.

The party said it held steadfastly to the view that Sarawak was independent when it executed the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63), and the state was an equal partner in the country.

In his response to PSB today, Wan Junaidi said after the late Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra Al-Haj’s overture at a press luncheon in Singapore on May 27, 1961, on the formation of Malaysia, the matter was brought to the Parliament to pass a motion to allow Tunku to discuss with the British, Brunei government, and the leaders of the Sarawak, Sabah, and Singapore.

Consequently, Wan Junaidi said a series of discussions were held between Tunku and the British government between Oct 13 to Nov 23, 1961, on the viability of the idea for the formation of Malaysia.

He said the British and Malayan governments then announced the formation of the Cobbold Commission on January 16, 1962, which carried out its work in Sarawak and Sabah from January until June 1962 and submitted its report to the British Government on June 21, 1962.

Consequent to the Cobbold Commission Report, Wan Junaidi said an Inter-Governmental Committee was formed to study the implementation of the report.

The Inter-Government Committee Report was completed and signed on February 27, 1963 which produced the draft of the Malaysia Agreement with the draft of Malaysia Bill annexed to it, he said.

“The Malaysia Agreement was signed on July 9, 1963, which later became known as the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63). The MA63 determines that the Act of Malaysia was to come into operation on the 31st of August, 1963.

“Which means that Her Majesty the Queen Elizabeth’s sovereignty and jurisdiction over the States of Singapore, Sarawak and Sabah shall cease and the same shall be vested on the Federation of Malaysia and the new States of Sarawak and North Borneo,” said Wan Junaidi.

He pointed out that a motion was tabled and passed in the House of Commons on July 19, 1963, for the colonies of North Borneo, Sarawak and the State of Singapore to be federated with the existing States of the Federation of Malaya.

This, he explained, was to comply with the notion that, “…. not an inch of the territories of the United Kingdom could be ceded out without the consent of the Commons in the House of Commons..”

“Remember that this motion is very precise in its wording for the purpose of enabling the territories of Sarawak and Sabah to be federated with the States of the Federation of Malaya,” he said.

The Malaysia Bill, he added, was to be tabled in Parliament in the United Kingdom as Act of Malaysia Chapter 35 and at the Parliament of the Federation of Malaya to be made into law as the Act of Malaysia 26 of 1963.

“The vesting of the Act of Malaysia and laws of the Federation on Sarawak and the North Borneo did not happened as stipulated in the Malaysia Agreement because of the protest made by Indonesia and the Philippines.”

Thus, he said the Manila Summit was held late July and early August 1963 and a resolution was made to ask for a representative of the United Nations (UN) to go to Sarawak and North Borneo to make assessment and enquiry.

The then UN Secretary-General, U Thant, was dispatched to make the assessment and enquiry.

“Because of the inordinate delay a Supplementary Agreement was made and signed in Singapore on 28 July, 1963 to amend the date stipulated in the MA63 to be delayed to 16 September, 1963 for vesting of the Act of Malaysia to the new Federation (Article II of the MA63) and vesting of the Constitutions of Sarawak, Sabah and Singapore as States of Malaysia (Article III of the MA63) and the relinquishment of Her Majesty’s sovereignty and jurisdiction over the States of Sarawak, Sabah and Singapore (Section 1(1) of the Act of Malaysia 1963 – Chapter 35),” said Wan Junaidi.

He added that during the Cobbold Commission of enquiry and the deliberations of the IGC the issue of asking for the independence of Sarawak and Sabah before the signing of MA63 was made but it was never stipulated in the MA63 nor in the draft Act of Malaysia.

“However, the British Colonial Administration, like their practice elsewhere, including in Malaya, the self-government of Malaya was granted in July, 1955.

“The British decided to give the self-government to Sarawak on 22 July, 1963.

“The British governor in Sarawak was only formally withdrawing his authority in Sarawak on 16 September, 1963, like the relinquishment of Her Majesty the Queen’s sovereignty and jurisdiction on 16 September, 1963. All the British laws applicable to Sarawak, Sabah and Singapore only ceased to be applicable on 16 September, 1963. Thus Sarawak became independent on 16 September, 1963,” Wan Junaidi said.

He hoped that with his explanation more people would become aware of the significance of the dates in history.

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