Many Sabahans and Sarawakians feel short-changed after joining the federation in 1963. Read more at straitstimes.com.
No matter how you look at it, federal-state relations in Malaysia across the South China Sea appear problematic as the country celebrates 60 years of federation.
But not any more. Since 2008, all the ruling coalitions in Putrajaya have had to rely on parliamentarians from Sabah and Sarawak to remain in power. This has led to a profound change in attitude among Malay political leaders on the peninsula towards East Malaysia. The next target in the sights of the Borneo states is the restructuring of the federal Parliament. They are demanding that one-third of the seats in Parliament be set aside for Sabah and Sarawak, claiming that this was one of the conditions for creating the larger federation. The one-third formula was distributed among Sabah, Sarawak and Singapore. After Singapore left the federation, the share for the remaining two shrank to 25 per cent.
Although political Islam is also present in Sabah and Sarawak, it is nowhere near the scale in West Malaysia. The live-and-let-live attitude is still strong in Borneo, and most East Malaysians still believe in multiculturalism. It helps that Sarawak is the only non-Muslim majority state with no state religion.
Gabungan Parti Sarawak , the ruling coalition in Sarawak, is absolutely clear about its goal – its tag line is “Sarawak First”. Sabah’s ruling coalition, Gabungan Rakyat Sabah , is actively promoting the “Borneo Bloc”, a reference to Borneo MPs negotiating for political concessions from the centre. There is little doubt that the current unity government in Kuala Lumpur led by Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim will fall if the Borneo Bloc, comprising at least 35 MPs, were to leave it.
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