There has been a few knee jerk reactions to Dr. Sanib's comments that Sarawak never gained independence on 22 July 1963 and that it was still a colony in 16 September when its sovereignty was transferred by UK to Malaya.
That makes 22 July 1963 irrelevant as the British put it, the people would be satisfied even if they had independence for one day!
On 22 July 2015 CM Adenan again restated the myth that Sarawak became "independent in Malaysia" which is a contradiction in terms as one country cannot be "independent" within another.
The facts of 53 years say that Sarawak was Malayanized and not Borneonized with direct control of the Sarawak civil service and Sarawak resources in violation of MA63 amongst other violations.
If there was no 22 July 1963 there WOULD still be 16 Sept 1962 because MA63 (forced through by UK in collusion with Malaya) already determined on 9 July 1963 that Sarawak & Sabah sovereignty would be "relinquished" by UK and "vest" (without independence first or a referendum) in the Malayan Federation name changed to "Malaysia". They called this a constitution change.
Read MA63 Articles 1 & 4
In the first place UK & Malaya had rushed headlong into creating their "grand design" with only one thought - to annex SS into Malayan rule without independence.
Independence was an afterthought.
The Malaysia Agreement (MA63) was signed on 9 July 1963 when Sarawak and Sabah were still colonies and Sarawak was given 56 days of "self-rule" from 22 July. If Britain had honestly and transparently gone about with their Malaysia plan they should have restored Sarawak independence first as they promised on the annexation (cession) of Sarawak as a crown colony in 1946. This was putting the cart before the horse.
In doing so the British had violated their Cession undertaking and a number of international law on the making of treaties as colonies were not independent states with legal capacity to make such agreements. Hence, MA63 itself was null and void from the beginning.
The British had to backtrack when the gravity of their error dawned on them and they discussed this in secret with the Malayan government and the TUNKU and his Cabinet who oppose independence for Singapore, Sarawak and Sabah). The British gave a 3 fold reason for giving self-rule.
1. Primarily by giving Sarawak "self-rule" it would soften & deflect local and international opposition to Malaysia which was being condemned as a neo-colonial scheme to re-colonize the Borneo territories to defend Britain’s strategic economic interests.
This was seen in the demonization of the TNKU anti-Malaysia independence uprising on 8 Dec 1962 and later communist led Sarawak guerrilla war for independence as a "threat" to Borneo freedom.
Yes, it is a fact that nationalists of all races including communists fought for Sarawak/Borneo independence.
The British had to convinced Malaya to agree to self-government. Malaya had strongly opposed grant of Sarawak self-rule (and also to S'pore & Sabah) and said it was against their (secret) agreement to take over these territories without independence but to merely absorb them into Malaya's colonial embrace.
2. By giving self-government the British explained would also deflect the local anti-Malaysia movement and Indonesian accusation that the people were forced into "forming Malaysia".
3. Self-government for Sabah was to imply that Sabahans rejected the Filipino claim on Sabah and instead they had chosen "Malaysia" .
Again I ask readers to read the declassified British colonial papers which set out the real intentions of UK & Malaya to re-colonize SS in "Malaysia"
Source: Borneo Wiki
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