East Malaysia's special position
How Sabah's and Sarawak's distinct histories, party systems and constitutional arrangements shape their politics; MA63 and the 18/20 points.
The account of how Malaysia was formed that is taught in Kuching or Kota Kinabalu is often not the same one taught in Kuala Lumpur. The difference is not a misunderstanding; it reflects two genuinely different founding arrangements.
In 1963, Sarawak and North Borneo — which became Sabah — did not join an existing country called Malaysia. They negotiated entry into a new federation alongside Malaya, each with its own list of conditions: Sarawak's 18 points and Sabah's 20 points. Parts of those conditions were written into the Constitution, including control over entry into each state, protection of native land rights, and supplementary state legislative lists. The separate immigration checkpoints travellers pass through on arrival in Sabah and Sarawak are the visible form of one of them.
Not all of it stayed as drafted. In 1976 the Constitution was amended so that Sabah and Sarawak were listed among the thirteen states rather than as founding units alongside Malaya. Whether that was a drafting tidy-up or a substantive change in status is still argued, and the argument matters because it touches both revenue and parliamentary representation. In December 2021 Parliament amended Article 1(2) again, passing it 199 to nil at third reading with no votes against.
Two things that amendment did not change. Sabah and Sarawak together hold 56 of 222 federal seats, about a quarter, against the roughly 35% of a 159-seat house that Sabah, Sarawak and Singapore held between them in 1963. And the petroleum dispute is unresolved. Sarawak has sought 20% since a 2014 assembly motion; Petronas and successive federal governments, including the Pakatan Harapan government that promised 20% in 2018, say the rate is not commercially sustainable because most oil-and-gas revenue goes to cost recovery, and Putrajaya points to investment, contracts and dividends flowing to Sarawak on top of the royalty — figures Anwar Ibrahim set out to Parliament in February 2025. No court has ruled on whether the federal Act overrides Sarawak's own petroleum laws; Petronas withdrew the appeal that might have settled it, and the Attorney General's Chambers advised against litigation again in 2025.
The arithmetic of federal government has also shifted. Since 2018 every federal government has been assembled from several coalitions rather than won outright by one, and Sarawak's GPS has been part of each combination: its 18 MPs backed Muhyiddin Yassin in February 2020, though Abang Johari said GPS was supporting him as Prime Minister without joining Perikatan Nasional; GPS backed Ismail Sabri in 2021; and in 2022 GPS and Sabah's GRS were both part of the coalition that gave Anwar Ibrahim's government a two-thirds majority.
The two states' politics are not interchangeable. GPS is a breakaway from Barisan Nasional and contains no branch of DAP, PKR, UMNO, PAS or Bersatu, so a Sarawak ballot is usually a choice between GPS and its opponents. Sabah has changed governing party in most decades since independence — USNO, Berjaya, PBS, UMNO, Warisan and now GRS. GRS is itself made up of Sabah-based parties, six of them since UPKO joined in June 2026, and UMNO is not one of them; but after the November 2025 state election left no bloc with a majority, GRS governs with Barisan Nasional and Pakatan Harapan alongside it, so peninsular party politics reaches into the Sabah government in a way it does not reach into Sarawak's. What the two states share is leverage in a Parliament where the majority has to be assembled.
That is the answer. Everything below is the working: each claim the explanation rests on, labelled with how certain it is and linked to where it came from. You can stop here.
The working
What the sources say
35 claims, 35 of them carrying a linked source. Each one shows how certain it is — that label is written in the knowledge base alongside the claim, not decided here.
How to read the labels
- established
- multiple independent reliable sources, and uncontested.
- contested
- reliable sources disagree, or official and independent accounts differ.
- uncertain
- genuinely unknown at the time of writing.
established
Malaysia was formed on 16 September 1963 through the merger of the Federation of Malaya, Singapore, North Borneo (Sabah) and Sarawak, under the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63) and the accompanying Malaysia Act 1963.
established
Prior to formation, an Inter-Governmental Committee (IGC), formed after the 1962 Cobbold Commission, negotiated the terms of entry. North Borneo's negotiators put forward 20 points; Sarawak's negotiators put forward 18 points. The IGC's final report was published in February 1963.
established
The 20-point and 18-point demands covered matters including religion (no state religion imposed on Sabah/Sarawak, though Islam is the federation's religion), language (English retained alongside Malay for a transition period), immigration control into the two states, native customary land rights, a state's own civil service, and specific seat and revenue guarantees.
uncertain
Substantial parts of MA63's terms were incorporated directly into the Federal Constitution: the Malaysia Act 1963 amended the Constitution to grant Sabah and Sarawak specific guarantees, including entry control under Part VII of the Immigration Act, the supplementary state legislative lists in the Ninth Schedule, and the entrenchment provisions in Article 161E. A commonly repeated figure describes 87 of 181 articles and 10 of 13 schedules as amended and 35 new articles inserted; that tally comes from secondary summaries and is given here as a secondary characterisation rather than as a counted result. (the mechanism of incorporation) / (the article and schedule tally)
how the source page qualifies this: established; uncertain
established
Part VII of the Immigration Act 1959/63 applies immigration law to each of Sabah and Sarawak as a separate unit (section 64). Section 66 provides that a Malaysian citizen who does not "belong to" the state may not enter it without a Permit or Pass, with exceptions for members of the Federal Government and of the state's Executive Council or Legislative Assembly, judges, and members of the public services; section 67 adds an exception for a citizen entering solely to engage in legitimate political activity. In practice this is why travellers arriving in Sabah or Sarawak — including Malaysian citizens from the Peninsula or from the other Borneo state — pass through a separate immigration check and receive a pass on entry.
established
The power the two states hold is a power of direction and consent over entry decisions, exercised through federal machinery, rather than a separate state immigration service. Section 65 requires the state's Director of Immigration to comply with directions from the "State Authority" — defined in section 62 as the Chief Minister or a person he designates — not to issue a Permit or Pass, to issue it only on stated terms, or to cancel one; and where the Director has acted on such a direction, section 65(2) bars the federal Minister from allowing an appeal against it without the state's concurrence. At the same time section 64(3) provides for a Director of Immigration for each state exercising the powers of the (federally appointed) Director General, and it is the Immigration Department of Malaysia's Sabah state office that issues the section 66 exemption endorsement.
Immigration Act 1959/63 (Act 155)Immigration Department of Malaysia
contested
The entry-control power has not been repealed or transferred, and it is constitutionally entrenched: a University of Malaya law faculty survey of the safeguards lists Articles 9(2), 161B and 161E(4) of the Federal Constitution together with Part VII of the Immigration Act as its basis, and notes that under Article 161E(2) the consent of the two states' Governors is required for constitutional amendments affecting their special position. Whether the power has worked in practice is separately disputed: the same survey records the allegation that Borneo entry control "has been defeated by naturalisation" of illegal immigrants in Sabah, and a Royal Commission of Inquiry on immigrants in Sabah, whose report was released on 3 December 2014, found that illegal immigrants had been able to obtain Malaysian identity documents and recommended a permanent secretariat to manage the problem. Entry control is often described as the MA63-era power that survived intact; that description fits the legal power, but not its effect in Sabah, which is disputed. (the power remains in force and is entrenched) / (whether it has been effective in Sabah)
how the source page qualifies this: established; contested
contested
In 1976, Parliament amended Article 1(2) of the Federal Constitution so that Sabah and Sarawak were listed as two of thirteen states in a single undifferentiated list, rather than as one of three original units (Malaya, Sabah, Sarawak) that formed the federation alongside each other. Critics in both states have described this as a "downgrading" of their founding status. (the 1976 amendment occurred and changed the wording) / the characterisation as a "downgrade" is — attributed to Sabah/Sarawak civil society and opposition figures, not universally accepted as a legal diminishment by all constitutional scholars
how the source page qualifies this: established; contested
established
On 14 December 2021, the Dewan Rakyat passed a constitutional amendment restoring language recognising Sabah and Sarawak's original position, with 199 MPs voting in favour, 0 against, and the remainder (about 21 MPs) not present/not voting — reported as a unanimous vote among those present.
established
The Dewan Negara (Senate) passed the same amendment on 23 December 2021. It received royal assent on 19 January 2022 and came into force on 11 February 2022.
established
The amendment changed Article 1(2) to redefine Sabah and Sarawak as "territories" forming the federation together with the states of Malaya rather than simply two of thirteen states; amended Article 160(2) to formally define "Malaysia Day" and the composition of the Federation; and repealed Article 161A(7), which had set out in the Federal Constitution itself the list of races counted as "native" in Sarawak. The effect of the repeal is that the definition is now to be specified by Sarawak state law rather than by the federal constitutional text; before the repeal, changing the list required a constitutional amendment, not a decision of the federal executive.
established
The 2021 amendment did not, by itself, restore Sabah and Sarawak's parliamentary seat share or resolve outstanding oil-related matters; these and other MA63 matters are handled separately through the Special Council on Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63 Council).
contested
Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar, then Minister in the Prime Minister's Department (Law) and the minister who tabled the bill, argued that because the amendment writes MA63 into Article 160(2)'s definition of "the Federation", the federal government can no longer say Sabah's and Sarawak's demands have no basis in the constitution, and the two states can now press for the rights detailed in the IGC report. This is a legal/political argument by the responsible minister, not a judicial ruling, and its correctness is among constitutional commentators.
established
The Petroleum Development Act 1974 (PDA 1974) vests ownership and exclusive rights over petroleum exploration and exploitation throughout Malaysia, including in state waters, in Petroliam Nasional Berhad (Petronas), a federal-government-owned corporation established the same year.
established
Under cash-payment/production-sharing arrangements that followed the PDA, oil-producing states (including Sabah and Sarawak) receive a 5% royalty on petroleum extracted from their territory/waters, paid by Petronas.
established
Sarawak's state government has separately imposed a 5% state sales tax on petroleum products — crude oil, LNG and related products — with effect from 1 January 2019, under its own State Sales Tax Ordinance and distinct from the federal royalty, so Sarawak collects both. Premier Abang Johari Openg has said the tax brings in between RM2.5 billion and RM4.8 billion a year depending on global prices, and Sarawak's 2026 state budget projected RM3.5 billion from it.
contested
The Sarawak state government, under successive Chief Ministers/Premiers (Adenan Satem, then Abang Johari Openg), has stated a position that the PDA 1974 was passed during a state of emergency and its legal validity is questionable, and has pursued its own oil and gas legislation and a state-owned entity (Petros) to assert regulatory authority over gas distribution within Sarawak. This is Sarawak's stated government position, not a settled legal finding., attributed to the Sarawak state government
established
In 2014 the Sarawak state assembly, under Chief Minister Adenan Satem, passed a motion demanding a 20% royalty, a position his successor Abang Johari Openg has maintained. It was rejected by the Barisan Nasional federal government and, after 2018, by the Pakatan Harapan government, which had promised 20% in its GE14 manifesto and did not deliver it. (the demand and the rejections)
contested
The stated reason on the federal and Petronas side is commercial: on ISEAS's account between 70% and 80% of oil-and-gas revenue goes to cost recovery, so a 20% royalty to states "would leave no profits for oil companies, raising risks of investor pullout, and no royalties for the federal government". The federal government also points to inflows other than royalty: Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim told Parliament in February 2025 that Sarawak had received roughly RM280 billion in upstream investment since the PDA came into force, RM90 billion in oil-and-gas contracts between 2014 and 2024, RM49 billion in cash payments and royalties to December 2024, and RM28.6 billion in MLNG dividends. ISEAS's own assessment is that Sarawak's grievance about under-compensation is understandable but that its sense of the scale of the shortfall "may be slightly inflated once non-royalty inflows are taken into account", and that the widely repeated claim that Petronas takes 95% of oil-and-gas revenue is unfounded., attributed to Petronas, the federal government and ISEAS respectively
contested
Sabah's trajectory has been different from Sarawak's. Chief Minister Joseph Pairin Kitingan demanded a 50% royalty in the 1990 general election cycle; after UMNO entered Sabah politics the state government accepted the 5% royalty for years under Chief Minister Musa Aman in exchange for development grants and federal support; Musa sought a higher rate in 2014 without success, and the Pakatan Harapan government's 20% promise was not delivered to Sabah either. ISEAS records that the Sabah state government has not pursued formal legal challenges over petroleum in the way Sarawak has, while continuing to insist on Sabah's special land and resource rights. Sabah-focused commentary goes further than the state government does, framing the PDA 1974 itself as illegal and unconstitutional; that is a commentator's position and is attributed as such. (the Sabah state government's course of action) / (the commentary's legal claim)
how the source page qualifies this: established; contested
established
No court has ruled on whether the PDA 1974 overrides Sarawak's own petroleum laws. Petronas challenged Sarawak's 5% state sales tax; the Federal Court declined jurisdiction and the Kuching High Court upheld the state's power to impose the tax without deciding the wider question, Petronas withdrew its appeal on then-Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin's instruction, and paid the tax under a 2020 commercial settlement. ISEAS records that the Attorney General's Chambers again advised against litigation in 2025.
established
In the current 222-seat Dewan Rakyat (as elected at GE15, 2022), Sarawak holds 31 parliamentary seats and Sabah holds 25 — together 56 of 222 seats (about 25%). Parliament's own member list shows Sarawak as constituencies P.192 to P.222 and Sabah as P.167 to P.191. At Malaysia's founding in 1963 the three new units held about 35% of a 159-seat Dewan Rakyat — Sarawak 24, Sabah 16 and Singapore 15, against 104 for the Peninsula — and after Singapore's 1965 exit its seats were redistributed within the Peninsula rather than to Sabah and Sarawak.
Parliament of MalaysiaParliament of MalaysiaFree Malaysia Today
contested
Since GE14 in 2018, every federal government has been assembled from a combination of coalitions rather than won outright by one, and in each case Sarawak's GPS — formed in June 2018 — has been part of the combination that produced the majority. ISEAS's assessment is that GE14, and the subsequent splintering of the Peninsular Malay vote, is what raised Sarawak's and Sabah's kingmaker position. (the pattern of government formation) / (the explanation for it, attributed to ISEAS)
how the source page qualifies this: established; contested
established2020 (Muhyiddin Yassin's government)
Following the "Sheraton Move" defections in February 2020, the Yang di-Pertuan Agong appointed Muhyiddin Yassin as Prime Minister on 29 February 2020 and he was sworn in on 1 March. GPS, then the largest single bloc still to declare, had 18 MPs and backed Muhyiddin for the post. Chief Minister Abang Johari Openg said GPS was supporting Muhyiddin as Prime Minister but was not joining his Perikatan Nasional coalition, and would give that support "without sacrificing the interest of Sarawak". GRS did not yet exist at this point: it was formed in Sabah in September 2020, before that month's state election, and this page does not attribute any February 2020 role to it.
established2021 (Ismail Sabri Yaakob's government)
After Muhyiddin resigned in August 2021, GPS's 18 MPs met the Yang di-Pertuan Agong on 19 August 2021 to declare support for UMNO's Ismail Sabri Yaakob; Ismail Sabri was appointed PM on 21 August 2021. GPS's support was widely reported as decisive to his securing a parliamentary majority.
established2022 (Anwar Ibrahim's unity government)
GE15 (November 2022) produced a hung parliament: Pakatan Harapan won 82 seats, Perikatan Nasional 74, Barisan Nasional 30, GPS 23, and GRS 6. Following the Yang di-Pertuan Agong's call for a unity government, GPS and then GRS agreed to join a coalition led by Anwar Ibrahim, whose combination with PH and BN gave the government a two-thirds majority.
established
Sarawak's governing coalition, GPS (Gabungan Parti Sarawak), was formed on 12 June 2018 when Sarawak's four Barisan Nasional component parties — PBB (founded 1973), SUPP (founded 1959), PRS (founded 2004) and PDP (founded 2002) — withdrew from BN entirely after BN's federal defeat at GE14, rather than remaining a BN state wing.
uncertain
At the December 2021 Sarawak state election GPS won 76 of the 82 state assembly seats — PBB 47, SUPP 13, PRS 11 and PDP 5. Its bloc has grown since through defections, including former Parti Sarawak Bersatu representatives: reporting in April 2026 put GPS at 80 of the 82 seats, with DAP's two seats — Chong Chieng Jen in Padungan and Violet Yong in Pending — the only opposition seats. (the 2021 election result) / (the exact current figure, which reporting gives variously as 79 or 80 because defections are counted differently)
how the source page qualifies this: established; uncertain
established
On 7 July 2025 the Sarawak State Legislative Assembly passed a Bill to increase its own membership from 82 to 99 seats, tabled by minister Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah, to take effect on a date appointed by the Yang di-Pertua Negeri. The next Sarawak state election is due by April 2027.
established
Sabah's post-independence political history shows a pattern of the governing party being replaced roughly once a decade: USNO dominated under Tun Mustapha Harun through the 1960s–70s; Berjaya (formed 1975 by Tun Fuad Stephens and Harris Salleh) defeated USNO in the 1976 state election and governed until 1985; PBS (Parti Bersatu Sabah, founded 1985 by Joseph Pairin Kitingan) then defeated Berjaya in the 1985 state election; UMNO (which entered Sabah politics after PBS's own internal rupture) governed as the dominant BN component from 1994 to 2018; Warisan (Parti Warisan Sabah, founded 2016 by Shafie Apdal after he left UMNO) won the 2018 state election; and GRS (Gabungan Rakyat Sabah) has governed since the September 2020 state election under Chief Minister Hajiji Noor., sourced to a synthesis of multiple secondary accounts; individual dates, particularly Berjaya's founding year and UMNO Sabah's entry, rest on secondary accounts
established
GRS began in September 2020 as an electoral alliance of Perikatan Nasional, Barisan Nasional and PBS for that month's Sabah state election. When GRS was registered as a coalition in its own right, Chief Minister Hajiji Noor said in March 2022 that BN was not part of the registered coalition. As of 18 June 2026 GRS has six component parties — Parti Gagasan Rakyat Sabah, PBS, the Liberal Democratic Party, Parti Harapan Rakyat Sabah, Parti Cinta Sabah and UPKO, which was admitted that day. BN and UMNO are not among them.
established
STAR, led by Jeffrey Kitingan, left GRS on 1 October 2025 over GRS's electoral pact with Pakatan Harapan and contested the 2025 state election under its own logo; SAPP and USNO also quit around the election. Five STAR assemblymen publicly disagreed with the decision and moved to GRS.
established
At the 17th Sabah state election on 29 November 2025 no party or coalition won the 37 seats needed for a majority in the 73-seat assembly. On the Election Commission's official count GRS won 29, Warisan 25, BN 6, independents 5, UPKO 3, STAR 2, and KDM, Perikatan Nasional and Pakatan Harapan one each. Hajiji Noor was sworn in for a second term in the early hours of 30 November with a claimed 37 seats — GRS plus UPKO, Pakatan Harapan and the five independents — and BN conveyed its support to the Yang di-Pertua Negeri, Musa Aman, separately; the cabinet sworn in on 1 December drew ministers from GRS, BN, PH and UPKO.
established
The difference between the two states' party systems is therefore one of degree, not of a peninsular party sitting inside the Sabah coalition. GPS contains no branch of DAP, PKR, UMNO, PAS or Bersatu. GRS is likewise made up of Sabah-based parties, but it governs in partnership with BN — a peninsula-led coalition — and, since 2025, with Pakatan Harapan; BN's deputy prime minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi described the BN–GRS arrangement in December 2025 as being about stability. Sabah's governing arrangement is thus more entangled with federal party lines than Sarawak's, while Warisan, GRS's main rival, is Sabah-only. (the composition and partnerships) / attribution for the characterisation as stated
What is still argued over
Where reliable sources disagree
These are set out side by side, with each position attributed to whoever holds it. No winner is picked.
contested
"Equal partner" vs "one of thirteen states"
Sabah- and Sarawak-based politicians and civil society groups (across GPS, GRS, Warisan, and MA63-focused NGOs) argue Sabah and Sarawak should be treated as constitutional equals to the Peninsula as a whole — a "three territories" or "equal partner" model reflecting how MA63 was negotiated. Some peninsula-based legal commentators and federal officials describe this as a political framing rather than the constitution's literal text even after the 2021 amendment. Attribution: "equal partner" framing — Sabah/Sarawak state governments, MA63 Council submissions, and civil-society groups such as those cited by ConstitutionNet; "two of thirteen states in substance" framing — some constitutional-law commentary.
contested
Whether the 2021 Article 1(2)/160(2)/161A amendments substantively restored MA63 status or were largely symbolic the federal government (then led by Ismail Sabri) presented the amendment as historic; some Sabah/Sarawak commentators and opposition figures have argued it changed wording without changing the substance of seat share, revenue share, or devolved powers. — each view is attributed to the side holding it; the KB does not adjudicate beyond the wording change itself.
contested
Oil royalty vs. cash payment / percentage disputes
Sarawak's state government under Premier Abang Johari has called for the return to be raised to 20% and has pursued its own oil and gas regulatory authority through the Distribution of Gas Ordinance and Petros. Petronas and the federal government say a 20% rate is not commercially sustainable because most oil-and-gas revenue goes to cost recovery, and Putrajaya points to non-royalty inflows to Sarawak — investment, contracts and dividends — as part of the return. The dispute over who aggregates Sarawak's gas remains in stalemate: a federal–Sarawak joint declaration names Petronas and Petros as co-aggregators, while Sarawak's own communications unit maintains Petros is sole aggregator. Sabah has pressed its case by negotiation rather than litigation., each position attributed to the party holding it
ISEAS – Yusof Ishak InstituteThe Edge MalaysiaFree Malaysia Today
contested
Whether MA63 implementation is moving or stalled the federal government's account is that it is moving through the MA63 Implementation Action Council and its technical committee, chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Fadillah Yusof, which met in March 2026 and again in August 2026 and has reported partial devolution of education to both states and a running tally of resolved items — 13 of 29 issues settled on one count, with others resolved on an interim basis or referred upward. Sarawak's position, put at the same meetings, is that the remaining items must be concluded by the end of 2026., attributed to the federal government and to the Sarawak state government respectively
uncertain
Whether GPS/GRS retain "kingmaker" leverage today as of 2026, some GPS-aligned figures dispute claims that a BN–PN peninsula pact could reduce Sarawak and Sabah's kingmaker role in a future government formation; this is a live, unresolved political argument at the time of writing, not a settled fact.
uncertain
Proposed increase to Sabah/Sarawak's parliamentary seat share there are reported 2025–2026 proposals (including from PM Anwar Ibrahim and from a body described as the "Special Council on the 1963 Malaysia Agreement") to raise Sabah and Sarawak's combined seat share toward 35% (about 78 of 222 seats) before GE16, and separate proposals for up to 17 additional Sarawak state seats. The federal seat-share change would require a constitutional amendment and an Election Commission delimitation exercise, and as at August 2026 neither had happened. The Sarawak state seats are a separate matter: the state assembly passed its own Bill in July 2025 to go from 82 to 99 seats, but Deputy Prime Minister Fadillah Yusof said in June 2026 that the delimitation proposal was unlikely to be tabled that year.
Still being researched
What this page does not yet know
Open questions the research has not closed. They are published rather than hidden, so you can see the edge of what is checked.
- Whether GRS's working partnership with Barisan Nasional, which is a governing arrangement rather than coalition membership, becomes something more formal before GE16.