Kuching/Melbourne – Parti Bumi Kenyalang (PBK) and Sabah Sarawak Rights Australia New Zealand (SSRANZ) strongly rebut the recent press report dismissing the RSNB Government-in-Exile (GiE) as “pure political rhetoric.”

Such commentary misleads the public by attacking the RSNB while ignoring the central legal and historical issue: the illegitimacy of Malaysia’s formation in 1963.

The Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63) , on which Malaysia’s creation is purportedly based, was void ab initio. North Borneo (Sabah) and Sarawak, as Crown colonies, had no international legal capacity to enter treaties. No referendum or genuine act of popular consent was ever conducted. Instead, the United Kingdom, in breach of the Atlantic Charter (1941) and UNGA Resolution 1514 (XV), transferred these territories to Malaya under a neo-colonial arrangement designed to preserve British and Malayan interests.

The UN Legal Opinion of 19 September 1963, delivered after Malaysia was proclaimed, lacked jurisdiction under Article 102 of the UN Charter, since MA63 was not registered. As legal scholar Richard Falk noted, the UN process lacked fairness, integrity, and independence. It was, in truth, a political manoeuvre to legitimise a colonial fait accompli.

The ICJ’s Chagos Advisory Opinion (2019) reaffirmed that self-determination is a jus cogens norm. Colonial transfers which serve strategic or political interests without the consent of the people are unlawful.

Malaysia’s creation falls squarely within this prohibition.

For six decades, Sabah and Sarawak have suffered resource plunder, political subjugation, and denial of autonomy. Courts have dismissed challenges to MA63 on technical grounds such as locus standi, perpetuating injustice. Against this background, the RSNB GiE’s call for independence is not “rhetoric” but a legitimate response to the unlawful denial of Sabah’s right to self-determination.

PBK and SSRANZ therefore defend the RSNB’s right to seek independence and condemn attempts to delegitimise this struggle. The real issue is not the RSNB, but the illegitimacy of Malaysia’s formation and the continuing denial of the people’s inalienable right to self-determination.

For media enquiries, contact:
Parti Bumi Kenyalang (PBK) & Sabah Sarawak Rights Australia New Zealand (SSRANZ)