Why is Sabah and Sarawak Unhappy in Malaysia?

James Chin

For the past decade, around this time of the year, Sabahans and  Sarawakians voice their unhappiness with the Malaysian Federation and the Malaysia Agreement (1963). There  are hundreds of FB pages devoted to “Sarawak for Sarawakians” and “Sabah for Sabahans”. Others openly called for the succession of Sabah and Sarawak from the Malaysian Federation.

The most usual complaint is that Malaysian independence date should be not be calculated from 1957 (date of Malayan independence) but 1963, thus this year’s Merdeka is 54 years, and not 60 as widely promoted by Putrajaya.  The second most cited complaint is that Sabah and Sarawak should not be treated as ordinary Malaysian states but as one of three-founder political entities that founded the Malaysian Federation.

These strong state nationalism sentiments are often misunderstood by West Malaysians as ingenuous and irresponsible, given that there are ministers from Sabah and Sarawak from day one of the Federation. Many West Malaysians also take the attitude that once the federalism was established, Sabah and Sarawak cannot be treated as ‘special’ from the other Malaysian states as they joined the federation willingly in 1963. Many West Malaysians also hold prejudicial views of native Sabahans and Sarawakians as “under-developed” and “backward”.

In this video, Professor James Chin, from the University of Tasmania, a leading scholar of East Malaysian politics, provides the background to the formation of Malaysia, federal-state relations for the past 50 years and the reasons why Sabahans and Sarawakians are unhappy with the federation.

https://www.facebook.com/themalaysianinsight/videos/1395948510520605/