Malaysia’s position on Palestine is in glaring contrast with its treatment of the natives in Sabah and Sarawak.Malaysia is taking the position, as pointed out by Kelantan Menteri Besar Nik Aziz Nik Mat, that the establishment of Israel is illegal. If so, Putrajaya must immediately bring the matter before the United Nations Security Council and urge that the international community take urgent action on the “illegality”.
In rooting for the Palestinians, Malaysia claims that they are being subject to a brutal occupation, and at constant risk of being evicted from their lands after they (the lands) have been forcibly taken away by the Tel Aviv government.
This is a position that the Christians – adherents of the second largest faith in Malaysia – non-Malays, and Sabah and Sarawak, by and large, reject.
The Christians in particular want to see peace between Israel and Palestine so that the sanctity of the places holy to their faith is assured in perpetuity. They do not want to see, unlike Putrajaya, the wars of the Crusades in the centuries past repeated in the 21st century.
The historical reality is that Israel was established in 1948 under international law by the UN General Assembly and Security Council and recognised by the international community. This was part of the continuing mandate of the UN’s 24-Nation Decolonisation Committee.
Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey are among the Arab and Muslim states which have since recognised Israel. If Malaysia, which under Umno loves to punch above its puny weight in international affairs, refuses to recognise Israel, no one would bat an eyelid even in the Muslim world.
The same UN also established the state of Palestine in 1948. Palestine and the Arab states refused to accept Israel and immediately attacked the Jewish state. The rest is history.
Palestine is today, ironically, asking for far less than what the UN gave it in 1948. However, as long as Israel does not have security, there will not be a Palestinian state with full UN membership.
This is the crux of the matter stressed more than once in recent days by Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim and being continually distorted by Umno and the mainstream media.
Two-state solution
The security of Israel begins with its recognition by Palestine and no less. Israel, in return, is prepared to recognise Palestine, having already embraced the two-state solution.
Some would say it’s a chicken-and-egg situation.
The sheer hypocrisy of Malaysia’s position on Palestine provides a glaring contrast with the fate of the Penan, for example, who are being hunted, pursued and chased out like animals from their traditional lands in Sarawak.
Other native landowners in Sabah and Sarawak have had their lands seized by Peninsular Malaysia-based plantation companies under one pretext or another.
The situation of the Palestinians, under constant international scrutiny, is a whole lot better than that of the people in Sabah and Sarawak whose plight remains hidden from the eyes of the world.
For starters, the two states in Borneo, it can be said, have been illegally occupied by Putrajaya since 1965, the year that Singapore was expelled from the then Malaysian Federation.
Malaysia, formed in 1963, then also consisted of Malaya, Sabah and Sarawak.
Brunei had stayed out at the 11th hour over the federal government wanting 95% of the sultanate’s oil revenue on land and in the inner waters and 100% from the outer waters.
Putrajaya has been forcibly taking from Sabah and Sarawak, since 1976, what Brunei was not willing to concede in 1963.
Oil agreement
Putrajaya has also been in non-compliance of the 1963 Malaysia Agreement under which Sabah and Sarawak came together with Malaya and Singapore to form the Federation of Malaysia.
The reason for the non-compliance, and hence illegal occupation of Sabah and Sarawak, is so simple it leaves one speechless and in a complete state of political, if not legal, paralysis.
The definition of federation in the post-Singapore Federal Constitution, unlike that in 1963, lists Sabah and Sarawak as two of the many states along with those in Peninsular Malaysia.
In 1963, Sabah and Sarawak, along with Singapore, were equals of Malaya.
In short, the so-called Federation of Malaysia of today is actually the Federation of Malaya which was quietly brought back in 1965 through the backdoor, after Singapore’s exit, to include Sabah and Sarawak as member states.
Sabah and Sarawak ceased to be members of the Federation of Malaysia in 1965 at the same time as Singapore. Instead of letting the Borneo states go at the same time, as demanded by then Sabah Chief Minister Donald Aloysius Marmaduke Stephens, Putrajaya bundled him soon thereafter into exile in Australia.
Stephens made a comeback as chief minister in 1976, this time as a Muslim (Mohd Fuad), but perished in a mysterious air crash hours after he refused to sign a controversial oil agreement with Petronas and the federal government.
Today, no one knows whether such an oil agreement exists. The official media reported in 1976, after Stephen’s death, that successor chief minister Harris Salleh signed the controversial oil agreement. If he indeed did, the Sabah state government should have a copy.
Chief Minister Joseph Pairin Kitingan (1985-1994), according to his younger brother Jeffrey Kitingan, tried to get a copy of the oil agreement when he helmed the state government but failed. Jeffrey tried as well to get a copy of the agreement and came up blank. So, the younger Kitingan can be forgiven if he harbours a sneaking suspicion that the so-called oil agreement does not exist at all.
With or without the oil agreement, the federal government and Petronas have no business robbing Sabah, Sarawak as well, of its oil and gas resources.
The daylight robbery is all the more brazen considering that the Federation of Malaysia, as constituted in 1963, ceased to exist in 1965 with Singapore’s departure, and what we have today is the old Federation of Malaya (1957-1963) masquerading as the Federation of Malaysia.
At least in the case of Israel, the Tel Aviv government has a mandate under international law and the United Nations charter to rule the country and steer Palestine towards statehood.
In the case of Sabah and Sarawak, what is the excuse that Putrajaya has to continue to occupy the two Borneo states and continue to keep them at the bottom of the dung heap as the poorest parts of the so-called federation?
This is a question which cries out for answers as much as the continuing plight of the Palestinians.
To add insult to injury, Putrajaya has been busy trying to create a fait accompli in Sabah by flooding the state with thousands of illegal immigrants who are also making their way into the electoral rolls.
In 2005, of the 3.2 million population in Sabah, only 1.5 million were locals, and the rest foreigners including illegal immigrants. Today, the population numbers some 3.5 million.
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