That’s what we promised them (UPDATED with Chinese translation)

ARCHIVES 2013

By MT Webmaster On May 31, 2013

In fact, if you look at ‘Point 1’ of the Agreement, Sabah does not have any State religion. This would mean Islam is not the official religion of Sabah. And this would also mean, if a Muslim lives in Sabah, he or she can leave Islam and become a Christian or Atheist or whatever and there is nothing the government can do about it (unlike in West Malaysia where they can).

THE CORRIDORS OF POWER

Raja Petra Kamarudin

The PKR vice president is in discussions with her lawyers to haul the Sabah government to court for barring her entry into the state

(FMT, 31 May 2013) – PKR vice president, Nurul Izzah Anwar, is planning legal action against the Sabah government for barring her for entering the state.

“I’m in consultation with my lawyers on the possible action to be taken against them,” said Nurul, who is also the MP for Lembah Pantai.

Nurul headed for Sabah yesterday on the invitation of PKR deputy secretary general and Penampang MP, Darrell Leiking, invitation to celebrate the Pesta Kaamatan in Penampang.

However on arrival, she was detained by the immigration officials allegedly under the instructions of the Sabah Chief Minister’s Department before being forcibly deported to KL.

It is learnt that the Immigration Department also informed Nurul that the Chief Minister’s department had also instructed them to not only bar her but many more personalities from Peninsula from entering Sabah henceforth.

“It’s a sad situation where Sabah is actually politicising security, and vengeance should not be practiced in security,” said Nurul. “Pakatan still welcomes everyone into PR governed states such as Penang and Selangor.”

Leiking, meanwhile condemned the Sabah Immigration Department and those who instructed them to bar her, saying that they should be ashamed of themselves.

“I challenge the Sabah Chief Minister and state’s cabinet to explain to the people of Sabah and Malaysia why this act transpired,” said Leiking.

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Today, Member of Parliament for Lembah Pantai Nurul Izzah Anwar was barred from entering Sabah. This is not the first time something like this has happened and will certainly not be the last time.

While this is most unfortunate and definitely violates one’s fundamental liberties — something I have been arguing in support of for a very long time indeed (including the fundamental liberties of apostates and gays) we need to discuss this incident against the backdrop of what the opposition Pakatan Rakyat promised the Sabah people in the run-up to the recent general election less than a month ago.

If you can remember, Pakatan Rakyat promised Sabah and Sarawak full-autonomy plus it promised to respect the terms and spirit of the 18- and 20-Point Agreements (plus it promised them an increase of the Oil Royalty from 5% to 20%). So we need to discuss the ‘deportation’ of Nurul Izzah against this backdrop — a promise made by Pakatan Rakyat.

In short, this is what the opposition promised them and what happened is merely a fulfillment of this election promise.

According to ‘Point 6’ of the Agreement, Sabah has the absolute right to determine who can and cannot be allowed into Sabah. And no reason needs to be given in denying anyone entry into Sabah.

Is this fair? It may not be fair but this is what we promised them and they are just doing what we promised them and what is within their rights to do. According to the Agreement, they do have a right to do this. And according to what we promised them, we will honour and respect this right.

Furthermore, English is the official language of the state and all communications should be in English plus the government can close down Malay, Chinese and Tamil schools and force everyone to go to just English-medium schools.

Another point, and a very important point to note, is that the Federal Constitution of Malaya is no longer valid. And you cannot amend the Federal Constitution of Malaya and turn it into the Federal Constitution of Malaysia. You need to discard the current Federal Constitution and come out with a brand new Constitution.

That is what the opposition promised Sabah (and Sarawak). Hence Islam and Bahasa Malaysia should not be the official religion and language respectively for Sabah plus Sabah can decide on who can and cannot enter that state.

Hence can we therefore protest when they merely do what we promised them they could do? So we need to be careful about making election promises just so that we can win votes. Now we need to honour those promises and not protest when they act on those promises.

Have we painted ourselves into a corner? That may appear so.

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The 20-point Agreement between the Federation of Malaya and Sabah

Point 1: Religion

While there was no objection to Islam being the national religion of Malaysia there should be no State religion in North Borneo, and the provisions relating to Islam in the present Constitution of Malaya should not apply to North Borneo.

Point 2: Language

a. Malay should be the national language of the Federation.

b. English should continue to be used for a period of 10 years after Malaysia Day.

c. English should be an official language of North Borneo for all purposes, State or Federal, without limitation of time.

Point 3: Constitution

Whilst accepting that the present Constitution of the Federation of Malaya should form the basis of the Constitution of Malaysia, the Constitution of Malaysia should be a completely new document drafted and agreed in the light of a free association of states and should not be a series of amendments to a Constitution drafted and agreed by different states in totally different circumstances. A new Constitution for North Borneo was of course essential.

Point 6: Immigration

Control over immigration into any part of Malaysia from outside should rest with the Central Government but entry into North Borneo should also require the approval of the State Government. The Federal Government should not be able to veto the entry of persons into North Borneo for State Government purposes except on strictly security grounds. North Borneo should have unfettered control over the movements of persons other than those in Federal Government employ from other parts of Malaysia into North Borneo.

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這就是我們答應他們的

事實上，如果你去讀協議的第一點，你會發現沙巴根本就沒有任何官方宗教，這也表示回教根本就不是沙巴州的州屬宗教。這進而也表示，如果一個住在那兒的回教徒想要離教去信奉基督教或成爲無宗教主義者的話，政府是拿他沒辦法的（不像在西馬政府可以對他做出相對的懲罰）。

公正黨副主席正和她的律師商討就沙巴政府禁止她入境沙巴一事起訴該州政府。

(FMT, 2013年5月31日) – 公正黨副主席努魯伊莎打算採取法律行動對付沙巴政府。沙巴政府早前禁止她入境該地。

（下文省略）

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Lembah Pantai國會議員努魯伊莎于今天早前被禁止入境沙巴州。這已不是第一次發生類似事件了，而這次也決不會成爲最後一次。

當然這是件很令人遺憾且很侵犯人權的事—-我之前不止一次爭論此事的正確性（包括離教和同性自主等基本人權）—-但我們還是要把這件事情和一個月前大選時反對黨對沙巴人民做出的承諾一併討論。

如果你還記得的話，民聯曾答應要給予沙砂兩州完全的自主權以示他們對20點協議的尊重（他們也答應要把石油稅增加至20%）。所以我們必須把努魯被‘驅逐’一事和民聯作出的承諾連在一起討論。

簡短一點來講，以上所發生的正是民聯所答應的，而沙巴政府只是執行他們在大選時被承諾的諾言而已。

根據協議的第六點，沙巴擁有決對的權利來定奪某個人可不可以入境。他們可以拒絕任何人入境而不需給出任何理由。

這公平嗎？這可能很不公平，但這是我們之前承諾他們的，他們只是執行我們答應給他們的權利而已。根據協議所提，他們確實擁有這個權力，而根據我們所答應他們的，我們必須尊重他們的使用權。

不止如此，協議裏還提到英文是該州的官方語言，（州）政府還有權利迫令關閉馬來文，華文和淡米爾文學校和把所有人都送進英文學校。

還有一個很重要的重點，那就是馬來亞聯邦憲法是無效的，而你也不能把馬來亞聯邦憲改成馬來西亞聯邦憲法。你必須把現在的聯邦憲法給摒棄掉然後編寫一個全新的憲法。

這就是民聯答應沙巴（和砂勞越）的東西。所以說伊斯蘭教和馬來文不能成爲沙巴州的官方宗教和語言，還有就是沙巴政府決定讓不讓某個人進入沙巴州。

儅他們只是執行我們承諾他們的權力時，我們有立場反對他們嗎？所以說我們必須很小心地來給出選舉諾言，即使我們的目的只是要贏得選票。現在儅他們執行他們的使用權時，我們只能尊重我們的諾言而不是去反對他們。

我們是否已把我們自己逼進了死胡同裏了呢？我恐怕答案是‘是的’。

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馬來亞聯邦和沙巴州的20點協議

第一點：宗教

在回教是馬來西亞國家官方宗教的同時，北婆儸洲是沒有州屬宗教的。而在馬來亞憲法内任何有關回教的條約在北婆儸洲是使無效的。

第二點：語言

a. 馬來文是聯邦的官方語言。

b. 在馬來西亞日後的十年裏，英文還是應該繼續被使用。

c. 在任何用途上，無論是有關州屬或是聯邦，英語將無限期地成爲北婆儸洲的官方語言。

第三點：憲法

雖然（雙方）都接受目前馬來亞聯邦憲法為馬來西亞憲法的根基，馬來西亞憲法應該是一個全新並且所有州屬都同意接受的起草，而不是一系列不同州屬在不同情況下修改的憲法的。（給予）北婆羅洲的一個新憲法是必不可少的。

第六點：移民

在馬來西亞任何地方，控制外來移民是國家政府的責任，但（要）入境北婆儸洲則必須先得到州政府的同意。聯邦政府無法否決任何人因州政府理由而入境北婆儸洲，除了治安安全課題以外。除了馬來西亞聯邦政府從馬來西亞其他地方把人雇用進來北婆儸洲以外，北婆儸洲將不受約束地全權控制人口的移動。