Drop ‘negeri’ label, Jeffrey Kitingan insists, as Sabah deserves territory status

KOTA KINABALU, April 29 — Tambunan Assemblyman Datuk Seri Dr Jeffrey Kitingan called on the Government to drop the term “negeri” for Sabah, saying Sabah is a founding partner of Malaysia and not on the same level as the peninsular states.

“Sabah, together with Malaya, Sarawak and Singapore formed Malaysia as equal partners and should be recognised accordingly as a territory of equal standing with Malaya, not just a state within a federation,” he said when debating the Head of State Policy Speech.

He pointed to the 2021 Federal constitutional amendment to Article 1(2), through which the Federal Government acknowledged that the amendment was to restore Sabah and Sarawak’s status as territories equal in standing with Malaya in the formation of Malaysia.

“The Sabah Legislative Assembly has already begun this shift, we now call it the Dewan Undangan Sabah, not Dewan Undangan Negeri and Sabah elections are now referred to as Pilihan Raya Umum Dewan Undangan Sabah, not Pilihan Raya Negeri,” he said.

He said when Malaysia was proclaimed on Sept 16, 1963, Sabah was referred to publicly and internationally as a “negara” and that in the original Federal and Sabah constitutions from 1963 to 1976, the Head of State carried the title “Yang di-Pertua Negara.”

“This is not about confrontation with the Federal Government. It is about correcting what has gone wrong since 1963. Sabah must stand as an equal to Sarawak and Malaya. 

“The formation of Malaysia does not mean Sabah should be swallowed up by Malaya or that we must always bow to Kuala Lumpur,” he said.

Jeffrey also proposed that the title of Sabah’s Chief Minister be changed to “Premier”, consistent with Sarawak and similar to the premiers of states in countries such as Australia.

Additionally, he called for Assistant Ministers in Sabah to be retitled as Deputy Ministers, saying the current title gives the impression of someone merely carrying bags rather than holding a serious ministerial role.

He proposed that heads of departments and agencies in Sabah carry the title “Director-General, the same as their counterparts in Peninsular Malaysia, noting that some positions in Sabah such as the Head of Civil Service already carry that title but questioned why it had not been extended to all departments.

“Districts in Sabah and Sarawak are larger than many peninsular states. It is only right that our titles and administrative structures reflect that equal standing,” he said.

He called for amendments to the Sabah Constitution to restore and correct changes made since 1963 and for the number of state ministries to be expanded beyond the original 10 that were established at the time of Malaysia’s formation.

“Many new sectors that did not exist in 1963 now require dedicated ministerial oversight, including artificial intelligence, the digital economy, the Blue Economy, the Green Economy, environmental sustainability, carbon capture, carbon credits and international commitments such as the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement 2015,” he said.

He also proposed the setting up of the Homeland Security Ministry dedicated to managing Sabah’s interests in immigration, registration of residents and internal security, including border protection that complements Federal security agencies.

He said the Sabah Government has the right to manage the registration of its own people and to issue Sabah identity cards, separate from the Federal MyKad.

“Every Sabahan is a Malaysian, but not every Malaysian is a Sabahan. The Sabah Government is the one that determines who qualifies as a Sabahan and thereby becomes a Malaysian citizen,” he said.

He said that while Sabah had delegated some of its powers to the Federal Government to issue Malaysian identity cards, it had not surrendered its right to issue its own Sabah IC, a residual power that Sabah retains.

“In a Federation, there is no Federation without states. States existed first before the federation. States delegated some powers to the Federal Government … but not all. That is what we call residual power, and in Sabah, we must exercise it,” he said. — Daily Express