Sabah’s 15 days of Independence

ARCHIVES 2010

By admin-s On Sep 1, 2010

By Rizzku

Sabah (known as North Borneo then) gain independence from British Crown colony on 31st August 1963. From 1st September 1963 to 15th September 1963, for 15 days, Sabah was truly independence, truly liberated, truly on its own. On 16th September 1963, Sabah, together with Malaya, Singapore and Sarawak joined to form Malaysia. Little did Sabah knew that on that very day, her independence was gone forever.

Today is 31st August 2010. 47 years since the ‘Merdeka Day’ given by the British Crown colony. It was right after all, for all Sabahan to celebrate 31st August as their Independence Day (at the same time with our fellow counterpart from Peninsular Malaysia). It is therefore, historically wrong for Sabahan to celebrate their Independence Day on 16 September as some do.

We, Sabahan did gained our independence on 31st August. However, it was not in 1957, but in 1963. That means, we should be only celebrating our 47th year of independence (and not 53rd).

16th September is not the Independence Day for Sabah (or North Borneo). It is the commemoration of the formation of Malaysia. If anything, 16th September should be remembered by Sabahan as the day their nation lost its short lived independence.

Anybody would know and realise that between 1st September 1963 to 15th September 1963, Sabah was a nation on its own. Sure, Sabah did not manage to have its own President or Prime Minister, simply because on that fateful 15 days, Sabah was already being cajoled and readied into the formation of Malaysia.

In that 15 days of independence, there was no time for election to be conducted. It was deemed unnecessary to have even a local but British appointed head of the new nation. Instead, The Cobbold Commission was already there to valiantly proclaim that Sabah will be forming Malaysia with the rest of the other newly formed nations.

In fact, The Cobbold Commission of inquiry (which was tasked to assess whether Sabah (and Sarawak) were willing to form Malaysia) was conducted several years earlier and completed its report on 1st August 1962. In the report, roughly a third of Sabahan agreed to the formation, a third did not agree and another third agreed with conditions (hence the famous 20 points of Sabah).

The third who agreed with conditions must be turning and tossing in their graves now (if they are dead), knowing the most of the 20 points are now no more adhered in the Federation of Malaysia. Among them who are still alive now, they must be wishing they are dead!

Are we better now, after 47 years of independence from the British Crown Colony? I want to believe so. However, looking at how recently liberated Hong Kong (from British in 1997), one cannot help to see the striking difference between it and the immediate neighbourhoods. Hong Kong by any measures is much more developed as compared to other cities in China.

With Sabah endowed with rich resources, there is no reason to believe that British would not be able to develop Sabah to a much more grandiose than Hong Kong. We could easily have our own commuter systems, top class network of asphalt roads, twin towers somewhere, world class oil and gas industries and many more. After all, we have all that in Peninsular Malaysia, where 95% of our oil revenue goes to.

However, who should we blame?

Can we blame the Federal Government for sucking us dry? I do not think so. In this world, the smarter people will always take advantage of the foolish people. Therefore, we only have our own forefathers to blame for not acting smart enough in the interest of Sabah.

Of course, there are people who were allegedly murdered while fighting for the better term for Sabah. The fact that they died only indicates that the victors who lives on were much smarter, after all that is how wars and battles are won. It was due to the foolishness of our forefather that we only have 15 days of independence. It was due to the ignorance of our forefathers that we are continually being colonised until now.

Even now, to this very date, we still have our own present fathers (political leaders) who are still happily handing over what little is left of our treasures to ‘others’. I will forever blame them. I will eternally blame my biological forefathers too, for they were only interested in which ‘Tajau’ to drink from and how many pigs to slaughter for ‘Aramaiti’ during the time of Cobbold Commission.

However, the most important question is, will my children blame me in another 47 years from now? What I do now (or more aptly, who I vote now) will echo in eternity.