Sabah Umno: How is 20-pt agreement still relevant?

Keningau Umno Youth has described the opposition's insistence on raising the 20-point memorandum (relating to Sabah's terms to form Malaysia) and Sabah's position in Malaysia, as unreasonable.   

Its chief, Azman Ruslan, said the parties concerned should explain frankly why and how they saw the points in the memorandum as still relevant, despite the fact that it had been 49 years since Sabah gained independence within Malaysia.   

"It is crucial for them to explain their 'struggle' for it, lest they would encourage 'false hopes' among the people, especially the bumiputera communities," he said in his address at the Umno Youth conference in Keningau today.   

The conference was officiated by Rural and Regional Development Minister Mohd Shafie Apdal, who is also party vice-president.   

He cautioned against becoming fanatical in championing a certain issue to the extent that priorities, which warranted attention were left 'suspended'.   

Azman said, not all Sabahans, especially the young generation, had the opportunity to read and scrutinise the Cobbold Commission report pertaining to the views of the people of Sabah and Sarawak on the formation of Malaysia.

The Cobbold Commission was a commission of enquiry set up in 1962 to determine whether the people of North Borneo (now Sabah) and Sarawak supported the proposal to form Malaysia.   

While quoting the Commission report, Azman, a lawyer, cited that the then Kadazan-based party, United National Kadazan Organisation (Unko) fully supported Malaysia's formation as the community felt their future would be more assured when North Borneo gained its independence and formed the federation.   

He said racial assimilation, including through marriage, could likely influence the attitude and nature of Sabah's future generations and make them less parochialistic.
  
"We now have Dusuns, Muruts marrying Malaysians from the peninsula and vice-versa," he said to stress a point.