Not easy for Sabah, Sarawak to leave Malaysia, says constitutional expert - The Malaysian Insider.

Mustapha, one of the founders of Malaysia, was the Sabah chief minister between 1967-1975 and had a thorny relationship with the govt

He added that the issue of leaving the Federation had surfaced before the 1999 general election when some leaders from PAS made a slip about it.

"Another former minister Tun Abdul Razak Hussein had accused Tun Datu Mustapha Datu Harun of harbouring such an intention and something which led to the formation of the Berjaya party in 1976," he said. Article 2 of the Federal Constitution talks about admission on new territories and thus secession can only take place if Parliament allows it, like Singapore in 1965," he said, while noting that Singapore was in reality expelled and did not leave the Federation.

Aziz said Tunku was criticised for kicking Singapore out and was even questioned years later by Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad for not consulting the Conference of Rulers. Not easy for Sabah, Sarawak to leave Malaysia, says constitutional expert  BY V. Former International Islamic University Malaysia academic Dr Abdul Aziz Bari (pic) said the two Borneo states could not secede independent.

"Travel british  where there is no problem like what we have in Malaysia, the option of leaving has failed to gain traction be it in Scotland or Wales," he added.

"(The current Sarawak Chief Minister Tan Sri ) Abdul Taib Mahmud regularly say that being in Federation, Sarawak does not have to worry about many of things, like defence and internal security," he said.

Yesterday, Professor James Chin of Monash University Malaysia told participants of a forum on electoral reforms in Petaling Jaya that since day one East Malaysians felt the federal had not been treating Sabah and Sarawak as separate entities as promised since 1963.

- February 17, 2014. Although the central government, represented by the Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition, was a partner of Usno led by Mustapha, they were worried about certain positions taken by the latter, gather, his intention or threat to secede Sabah from Malaysia.

"That cannot happen. "Indeed, then Singapore chief minister Lee Kuan Yew  preferred to put Malaysia, but pm Tunku Abdul Rahman just did not want them," he added. He said Tunku Abdul Rahman could have opted to declare Emergency in Singapore and put the state under Federal control. The Federation of Malaya, Sabah, Sarawak and Singapore formed Malaysia, but Singapore was later expelled to become a republic in 1965.

Aziz said leaving the Federation was not necessarily the best option. He said that even in more developed democracies, secession was not always convincing. "It may be said that the imposition of emergency in Sarawak in 1966 - the problem between Tunku and Sarawak chief minister Stephen Kalong Ningkan - perhaps may be cited tent fly preferred approach," he said.

"But without a doubt even some federal leaders also has used it before. ANBALAGAN, ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR  February 17, 2014  Sabah and Sarawak can only leave Malaysia after obtaining support from other states and the Conference of Rulers, a constitutional expert said, in response to a claim that there have been growing calls from East Malaysians to secede.

"So now, if some people in Sabah and Sarawak are not happy and would like to leave the Federation, they have to get support from other states and also through Conference of Rulers , given the Singapore lesson," Aziz said.