Self-styled Sabah and Sararak nationalists have urged incoming Sarawak Chief Minister Adenan Satem to fight for equal rights for the two Borneo states as compared with Peninsular Malaysia, or secede from the federation.

The group, which calls itself the Union of Sarawak and Sabah Nationalists, said this in an open letter to Adenan ( left ) and outgoing chief minister Abdul Taib Mahmud.

Referring to Peninsular Malaysia by its pre-1963 name Malaya, the union which represents 14 local groups said that Sabah and Sarawak were not intended to be just member states in a federation.

It said that this is because the Malaysia Agreement 1963 was an agreement embracing four independent states - Malaya, Singapore, Sabah and Sarawak.

“Malaya has to either restore our rights and position as an equal partner or be prepared to decolonize both Sabah and Sarawak because we believe Sabah and Sarawak have an intrinsic right to secede at will.

“Singapore had showed us the way in 1965 in accordance to Lord Lansdowne’s statement that ‘any state voluntarily entering a federation had an intrinsic right to secede at will, and that it was therefore unnecessary to include it in the constitution’.”

Firstly, it said that Sabah, Sarawak and Malaya should be three nations with “equal voting power” in the Malaysian Parliament.

Less than 5 percent of national budget

It also demands that the Borneo states have autonomous control of resources ,including all oil and gas revenues and the abolition of the cabotage policy, which requires that import first go through a Peninsular Malaysia port.

“In the 2011 national budget totalling RM109 billion, Sarawak, and Sabah, collectively had been allocated with only RM9.75 billion, meaning both states obtaining merely less than 5 percent of the budget.

“This is extremely unjust when both states contribute more than 60 percent of revenue into the national coffer. For the years 2012-2014 meanwhile, Sarawak and Sabah only received RM3 billion, in comparison to our national debt which chalked up to RM540 billion,” it said.

The four-page open letter was issued in response to Taib's (above ) call to keep Sarawak for Sarawakians and to protect the state from undue outside influence.

Groups which make up the union are:

  • 722 Sarawak Independence Day
  • 916 Occupation Day
  • Borneo Freedom Movement
  • Borneo Native Liberation
  • Borneo Oracle Group
  • Gerakan Nasionales Sabah
  • Perjanjian Malaysia
  • Sabah New Hope
  • Sabah Sarawak: Imbasan Kemerdekaan
  • Sarawak Menuju Merdeka
  • The Voice of Borneo
  • United Borneo Front Negara Sarawak
  • United State of Borneo
  • Voices of Freedom
“(As) was the motto of the Kingdom of Sarawak, ‘Agi Idup Agi Ngelaban”’, we Sarawakians will hope as long as we breathe,” the union said.

The call for secession was previously louder in Sabah, with Jeffrey Kitingan-led State Reform Party (Star) calling for a change to the federation of Malaysia to the United Kingdom model.

In its 2013 general election manifesto, Star called for Sabah, Sarawak and Malaya to be three nations in one union, like UK countries Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales and England.