What Does Mahathir Mean By Sabah-Sarawak Are “Equal Partners”?

We must remember, when Mahathir was Prime Minister, he detained under the Internal Security Act (ISA) Dr Jeffrey Gapari Kitingan and a number of other Sabah political leaders and activists for saying precisely what Mahathir is saying today — which is Sabah and Sarawak should be equal to Peninsular Malaysia.

Peninsular Malaysia, Sabah and Sarawak ought to be equal partners in this country, ex-PM Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said today as the nation marks the 57th Malaysia Day.

He said the supported the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63) and accepted that Peninsular Malaysia, and the two East Malaysian states jointly formed the nation.

“If we can live up to the same spirit and agreement of MA63, we can overcome every difficulty ahead of us,” he said in a Malaysia Day video posted on his social media.

Jeffrey Kitingan and six others were detained for wanting Sabah to be equal partners to Malaysia

Okay, that is all well and fine and surely Sabahans and Sarawakians would be extremely happy with Mahathir’s proposal. But then this raises a number of pertinent questions, which will require Mahathir’s response.

First would be why did Mahathir not say this when he was prime minister for 22 years from 1981 to 2003 and then a second time for 22 months from May 2018 to February 2020?

Mahathir had a lot of time to implement this “Sabah and Sarawak should be equal to Peninsular Malaysia” idea when he was Malaysia’s Prime Minister but he did not. Hence, is he talking about it now just to win votes in the Sabah state election on 26th September 2020 but does not really mean what he says?

https://www.hrw.org/reports//pdfs/m/malaysia/malaysia91o.pdf

We must remember, when Mahathir was Prime Minister, he detained under the Internal Security Act (ISA) Dr Jeffrey Gapari Kitingan and a number of other Sabah political leaders and activists for saying precisely what Mahathir is saying today — which is Sabah and Sarawak should be equal to Peninsular Malaysia.

When Mahathir was Prime Minister, he detained without trial all those who said Sabah and Sarawak should be equal to Peninsular Malaysia. So, can we believe Mahathir when today he says Sabah and Sarawak should be equal to Peninsular Malaysia?

Third, what precisely does “Sabah and Sarawak should be equal to Peninsular Malaysia “mean? The devil, as they say, is in the details. So, can we please have the details?

Does it now mean Petronas can no longer steal Sabah’s and Sarawak’s oil and gas?

For example, does that mean Sabah and Sarawak can now keep their oil and gas? The oil and gas in Terengganu and Kelantan belong to Peninsular Malaysia while the oil and gas in Sabah belongs to Sabah and the oil and gas in Sarawak belongs to Sarawak.

This is because Terengganu and Kelantan are Malayan states while Sabah and Sarawak are equal to Malaysia, not equal to Terengganu and Kelantan. Hence Sabah and Sarawak now get 100% and not just 5% of their oil and gas.

Yes, details please, as the devil is in the details.