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 There remain, however, some objection to the provisions in the existing Constitution of the Federation of Malaya that certain public expenditure may be incurred for Islamic purposes. We feel unable to make any positive recommendation in this respect as this resistance, though strong, is small and any recommendation for a Constitutional provision to meet this objection will do violence to present provisions in the Malayan Constitution which the weight of opinion does not require. We therefore limit ourselves to recording the point.

(f) Language (i) National language The Constitution of the Federation of Malaya provide that Malay is the national language. Objection is felt in some quarters to the idea this provision should apply to the Borneo territories and the British members of the Commission consider that this a matter for the peoples of the Borneo territories to decide for themselves when fully elected representative bodies have been constituted. The Chairman and the Malayan members feel that, as in fact Malay already approached more nearly than other language to a "lingua franca" in Borneo, this point need not give any offence to the non-Malay population, and that no derogation from the Federal provision is necessary.

(ii) Official language With regard to official languages, a majority of opinion favours Malay and English as official languages without any time limit in the Borneo States. The Chairman and the British members recommend that a provision to this effect be made in the Constitution. The Malayan members feel that from consideration of Malaysia taken as a whole, such a provision as a permanent feature cannot be readily acceptable without doing undue violence to the existing provisions of the Constitution of the Federation of Malaya. They recommend, therefore, that provision should be made which, while not affecting the position of Malay as the national language for the Federation of Malaysia, would ensure the continuance of English as an official language in the Borneo territories along with Malay for a period of 10 years after the establishment of Malaysia and to continue thereafter until such time as the Central Government in consultation with the State Governmnent of the territory concerned provides otherwise. The Central Government should not institute any move without prior consultation with the State Government.

(iii) With regard to the languages for debates and discussions in the State Assemblies of the Borneo territories, the Malayan members recommend that these be in Malay, English or any of