The Cobbold Commission, was a Commission of Enquiry set up to determine whether the people of

North Borneo North Borneo (usually known as British North Borneo, also known as the State of North Borneo) was a British Protectorate, British protectorate in the northern part of the island of Borneo, (present-day Sabah). The territory of North Borneo wa ...

(now

Sabah Sabah () is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state of Malaysia located in northern Borneo, in the region of East Malaysia. Sabah has land borders with the Malaysian state of Sarawak to the southwest and Indonesia's North Kalima ...

) and

Sarawak Sarawak ( , ) is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state of Malaysia. It is the largest among the 13 states, with an area almost equal to that of Peninsular Malaysia. Sarawak is located in East Malaysia in northwest Borneo, and is ...

supported the proposal to create the Federation of

Malaysia Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...

consisting of Malaya,

Brunei Brunei, officially Brunei Darussalam, is a country in Southeast Asia, situated on the northern coast of the island of Borneo. Apart from its coastline on the South China Sea, it is completely surrounded by the Malaysian state of Sarawak, with ...

Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...

, and

. It was also responsible for the subsequent drafting of the

Constitution of Malaysia The Federal Constitution of Malaysia (), which came into force in 1957 as the Constitution of the Federation of Malaya and was amended in 1963 to form the Constitution of Malaysia, is the supreme law of Malaysia and contains a total of 183 art ...

prior to the formation of Malaysia on 16 September 1963. The Commission was headed by former

Bank of England The Bank of England is the central bank of the United Kingdom and the model on which most modern central banks have been based. Established in 1694 to act as the Kingdom of England, English Government's banker and debt manager, and still one ...

governor, Lord Cobbold.

Members

Signing-of-the-Cobbold-Report-of-the-Commission-of-Enquiry-North-Borneo-and-Sarawak

Members of the Commission were: * Lord Cobbold, former Governor of the

, chairman of the Commission * Wong Pow Nee, Chief Minister of Penang, * Ghazali Shafie, Permanent Secretary to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs * Anthony Abell, former Governor of Sarawak * David Watherston, former Chief Secretary Of Malaya.

Report

The Commission released its findings, report and recommendations on 1 August 1962. It concluded that the formation of Malaysia should be implemented. However, Lord Cobbold also stressed that all parties enter the federation as equal partners. Lord Cobbold had secretly,without disclosing in the report , written to British Prime Minister

Harold Macmillan Maurice Harold Macmillan, 1st Earl of Stockton (10 February 1894 – 29 December 1986), was a British statesman and Conservative Party (UK), Conservative politician who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1957 to 1963. Nickn ...

on 21 June 1962: "I have supported Malaysia in the report on the assumption that Singapore also joins in ... if Singapore were to drop out, a federation between Malaya and the Borneo territories without Singapore would have few attractions. Cobbold Commission opined that compared to other options such as the continuation of British rule, early independence of the respective Borneo states or the creation of a federation of the Borneo states themselves, the Malaysia project offered the best option when the special positions were given to the Borneo states due to their different racial compositions, a great distance from the Malaya, and their political immaturity when compared to Malaya and Singapore. Abell and Watherston also opined that the formation of Malaysia would stifle the Communist takeover of Singapore, which in case of a Communist takeover, would likely have

Domino effect A domino effect is the cumulative effect produced when one event sets off a series of similar or related events, a form of chain reaction. The term is an analogy to a falling row of dominoes. It typically refers to a linked sequence of events ...

on Sarawak and North Borneo. Cobbold Commission also agreed that both Sarawak and North Borneo should keep their identity when entering the federation. This can be achieved by maintaining a high level of autonomy in local administration and allocating a certain quota of seats in the Malaysian parliament by taking into account the population and sizes of the Borneo states. Lord Cobbold summarised the Commission's findings as follows: Other recommendations of the Cobbold Commission Report include:

Head of federation

Cobbold Commission did not recommend whether the heads of state of Sabah and Sarawak are eligible to be elected as the heads of the Federation.

Name of the Federation

The name of the Federation is "Malaysia".

Religion

Cobbold Commission agreed that Islam should be the religion of the federation but would not jeopardise the freedom of other religions in the country, "which in effect would be secular".

Language

Cobbold Commission agreed on the unrestricted use of Malay, English and other indigenous languages in the respective Borneo state assemblies for 10 years after the formation of Malaysia, until the federal government, with the consultation of the respective Borneo state governments, that only the national language (Malay) can be used.

Immigration

Cobbold Commission recommended that entry of people outside of the country should rest with the federal government, while the Borneo states control the entry of people from other states in Malaysia. People employed by the state government should have unrestricted entry to Peninsular Malaysia, guaranteed by the federal government. Meanwhile, there should be unrestricted entry of people employed by the federal government into Borneo states, guaranteed by the state government. There should be unrestricted entry of people from Borneo states into Peninsular Malaysia. Visitor's permit of 3 months is allowed for those from Peninsular Malaysia to enter the Borneo states.

Right to secede

Cobbold Commission did not recommend a clause on secession in the federal constitution because it may cause political and racial divisions in the country.

References

External links

UN General Assembly 15th Session - The Trusteeship System and Non-Self-Governing Territories (pages:509-510)

UN General Assembly 18th Session - the Question of Malaysia (pages:41-44)
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