Page:MALAYSIA BILL (Hansard, 26 Juli 1963).djvu/3

 Malaysia In July, 1961, at a regional meeting in Singapore of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, a consultative committee was formed under the chairmanship of Mr. Donald Stephens, one or the foremost political leaders in North Borneo, to exchange views on the form Malaysia should take. Right from this early stage the political leaders in all the territories took the initiative in working out concrete proposals for bringing Malaysia about.

From the start it was recognised by all concerned that the most important step was to ascertain the feelings of the people themselves in Singapore the Legislative Assembly, in December, 1961, passed a motion supporting Malaysia in principle. In Borneo, with its primarily rural population it has more difficult to find out how people responded to an idea which, to all but the leaders, was a new one. The British and Malayan Governments agreed, as stated by my noble friend the Duke of Devonshire on November 28, 1961, that agreement had been reached that the creation of the Federation of Malaysia was a desirable aim in the interests of the people concerned and that a Commission was to be set up to ascertain the views of the inhabitants of North Borneo and Sarawak.

I am glad to see that my noble friend Lord Cobbold, who was chairman of that commission, is in his place today. I am sure that the peoples of North Borneo and Sarawak have every reason to be very grateful for the work of his Commission which visited their countries between February and April, 1962, and which in the course of a most arduous itinerary held 50 hearing at 35 different centres, interviewed personally over 4,000 people in some 590 groups and carefully studied some 2200 letters and memoranda which they received from individuals and associations. Every shade of opinion, from those hostile to the idea of Malaysia to those who were convinced it was the right solution, came forward. The Commission reported unanimously in favour or Malaysia and that Malaysia was supported by two-thirds or the peoples of Borneo provided that safeguards could be devised to meet their special conditions.

The Cobbold Report was published on the 1st August last year. On the same day, a joint statement was made by the British and Malay an Governments, in which it has agreed in principle to establish Malaysia by August 31, 1963, and meanwhile to set up an Intergovernmental Committee to work out detailed arrangements and safeguards for North Borneo and Sarawak. During August, Tun Razak, the Deputy Prime Minister of Malaya, and I (I left the United Kingdom on the 12th. I remember) visited the two territories with the primary purpose or setting up this Intergovernmental Committee, of which a preparatory meeting was held on August 30. Together we travelled the territories extensively and met as many of the leaders of the people as possible, and talked also with the expatriate and locally employed officers. He explained the concept of Malaysia and described how the Inter-governmental Committee would work.

We did not, of course, repeat the work of the Cobbold Commission, but we thought that it was important that Ministers from both Malaya and this country should themselves see and hear at first hand how people had reacted to the Malaysian concept since the departure of the Cobbold Commission. At the preparatory meeting of the Intergovernmental Committee it was agreed that sub-committees should he set up to deal with constitutional, fiscal, public service, legal and judicial, and the problems of departmental organisation A great deal of really solid work was done by these sub-committees, and I should like to pay my tribute to the political lenders and to the officials who gave so much of their time and so much of what should have been their leisure hours to this work, and thereby made it possible to complete the task in ll plenary meetings held between October 22 and December 20. I remember very well that our last plenary meeting was in December, and it was only when I was in the waiting room at the airport that the final decision was reached on the allocation of seats between Sarawak and North Borneo. All concerned, I think, deserved our gratitude and a word or praise for the way in which they carried out their arduous task.

Sir John Martin, the Deputy Under-Secretary of State in the Colonial Office, stayed in Borneo throughout this period and was a most able chairman of the sub—committees An immense amount of work fell on the local Administrators, both while the Committee was sitting and also throughout the last six months. Meanwhile, of course, they had their ordinary work of administration to get on with, and this work became increasingly exacting as a result of the Brunei