SABAH’S 1963 SECURITY PROMISE IS NOW BEING TESTED ON OUR DOORSTEP — PUTRAJAYA MUST PRODUCE A SABAH DEFENCE AND SECURITY MASTER PLAN

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PRESS STATEMENT

BORNEO’S PLIGHT IN MALAYSIA FOUNDATION (BoPiMaFo)

19 August 2026

SABAH’S 1963 SECURITY PROMISE IS NOW BEING TESTED ON OUR DOORSTEP — PUTRAJAYA MUST PRODUCE A SABAH DEFENCE AND SECURITY MASTER PLAN

Borneo’s Plight in Malaysia Foundation (BoPiMaFo) takes very serious note of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s statement that the Federal Government intends to strengthen defence infrastructure in Sabah following the expansion of United States military facilities to Balabac Island in Palawan, Philippines.

According to Malaysiakini, the Prime Minister acknowledged growing geopolitical uncertainty arising from military developments in the region and specifically referred to Balabac Island, which lies in close proximity to Banggi Island and Malaysian waters off Sabah.

BoPiMaFo believes this development raises a fundamental question that goes directly back to the assurances upon which North Borneo agreed to participate in the formation of Malaysia in 1963.

One of the fundamental arguments presented to the people of North Borneo was that joining the proposed Federation would provide greater security and protection against external threats.

More than six decades later, that assurance is now being tested on Sabah’s doorstep.

THIS IS NO LONGER A THEORETICAL SECURITY QUESTION

The geopolitical environment surrounding Sabah is changing.

A strategically significant military presence is expanding immediately north of Sabah.

At the same time, the Philippines has never completely abandoned its historical claim concerning Sabah.

We must be clear.

BoPiMaFo is not suggesting that the United States or the Philippines is preparing military aggression against Sabah.

There is presently no basis for making such an allegation.

But responsible governments do not wait until threats materialise before preparing national defences.

The Prime Minister himself has now recognised the changing security environment and announced that Sabah’s defence infrastructure must be strengthened.

That acknowledgement is important.

But acknowledgement alone is not enough.

Sabahans deserve to know:

What precisely is the Federal Government going to do?

WHERE IS THE SABAH DEFENCE AND SECURITY MASTER PLAN?

BoPiMaFo calls upon the Federal Government to formulate and disclose, to the extent compatible with national security, a comprehensive Sabah Defence and Security Master Plan.

The plan should explain how Malaysia intends to strengthen:

- air and maritime surveillance;

- radar and early-warning systems;

- naval and coastguard presence;

- air-defence capability;

- military infrastructure in northern and eastern Sabah;

- rapid-response capability;

- border and maritime enforcement;

- intelligence coordination;

- security around Banggi, Kudat, Sandakan, Lahad Datu, Semporna and the eastern seaboard; and

- protection of Sabah’s territorial waters, offshore resources and strategic infrastructure.

Sabah cannot be expected simply to accept another general statement that its security will be “strengthened”.

There must be measurable commitments, budgets, infrastructure and implementation timelines.

SABAH MUST NOT BECOME MALAYSIA’S BUFFER ZONE WITHOUT ADEQUATE PROTECTION

Sabah occupies one of Malaysia’s most strategically exposed geographical positions.

We face the Sulu and Celebes Seas.

We are situated beside the southern Philippines.

We sit close to increasingly contested areas of the South China Sea.

We have experienced kidnapping, cross-border incursions and the Lahad Datu intrusion of 2013.

And now major powers are expanding their strategic presence close to our northern maritime approaches.

Sabah therefore cannot be treated as merely another administrative state when national defence expenditure is allocated.

If Sabah carries greater strategic exposure, Sabah must receive correspondingly greater defence investment.

Greater vulnerability must mean greater protection.

Sabah must never be treated merely as the geographical shield protecting the rest of Malaysia while our own communities, coastlines and islands remain inadequately defended.

THE SECURITY PROMISE OF 1963 MUST MEAN SOMETHING

This development also requires Malaysians to remember why security was such an important issue during the formation of Malaysia.

North Borneo was encouraged to join a larger Federation partly because it was argued that the new political arrangement would provide stronger defence and security.

That historical assurance cannot now be treated merely as something belonging to 1963.

It creates a continuing responsibility.

If Sabah faces changing strategic risks because of developments immediately around our territory, then the Federal Government bears a corresponding responsibility to ensure that Sabah possesses the military and security infrastructure necessary to protect its people and territory.

The test of that promise is not what was said sixty-three years ago.

The test is what Malaysia is prepared to do today.

SECURITY IS NOT ONLY ABOUT WARSHIPS AND RADAR

BoPiMaFo also reminds the Federal Government that Sabah’s security vulnerabilities are not limited to conventional military threats.

For decades, Sabah has struggled with illegal immigration, porous borders, documentation problems and the consequences associated with the notorious Project IC controversy.

A Royal Commission of Inquiry was established to investigate the extraordinary demographic and documentation problems affecting Sabah.

Yet Sabahans are still entitled to ask:

How many of the fundamental recommendations arising from the RCI have actually been comprehensively implemented?

There is little point constructing sophisticated external defence systems while internal weaknesses affecting citizenship documentation, population integrity and border control remain unresolved.

National security begins not merely at the shoreline.

It begins with knowing who is inside the country, how they obtained their documentation and whether the integrity of citizenship has been protected.

PROJECT IC MUST NO LONGER BE TREATED AS A HISTORICAL FOOTNOTE

The changing geopolitical environment makes the unresolved consequences of Project IC even more serious.

A territory facing sensitive cross-border security circumstances must have absolute confidence in its identity documents, citizenship system and electoral records.

The Federal Government should therefore accompany any new Sabah defence initiative with a renewed programme to implement the outstanding recommendations arising from the RCI on illegal immigrants in Sabah.

Otherwise Malaysia will be strengthening the walls while leaving unresolved weaknesses inside the house.

SABAH MUST HAVE A VOICE IN DECISIONS AFFECTING SABAH

BoPiMaFo further believes that Sabah should be meaningfully represented in strategic discussions concerning developments around its territory.

Decisions involving Sabah’s maritime approaches, border security, defence infrastructure and regional military developments should not be determined entirely from Putrajaya and subsequently announced to Sabah.

Sabah is not merely the location where Federal defence policies are implemented.

Sabah is the territory directly exposed to the consequences.

The Sabah Government, Sabah security stakeholders and appropriate representatives of Sabah society should therefore be properly consulted.

BUDGET 2027 MUST SHOW WHETHER PUTRAJAYA IS SERIOUS

The Federal Government’s seriousness should ultimately be visible in money and infrastructure.

BoPiMaFo therefore calls upon the Federal Government to explain during the preparation and presentation of Budget 2027 what additional defence and security expenditure will specifically be committed to Sabah following the Prime Minister’s acknowledgement of the changing strategic environment.

We should know:

How much?

For what facilities?

Where will they be located?

What capabilities will they provide?

And when will they become operational?

Without these answers, “beefing up Sabah’s defence” risks becoming another political assurance without measurable outcomes.

DO NOT WAIT FOR ANOTHER CRISIS

Sabah has already learnt the cost of assuming that serious security threats will never happen.

Lahad Datu should have permanently changed that mindset.

The lesson should be simple:

Prepare before a crisis — not after it.

The military environment surrounding Sabah is changing.

The Prime Minister has acknowledged it.

The Federal Government must therefore respond with something substantially more serious than reassurances.

It must demonstrate that the security commitment made to North Borneo during the formation of Malaysia remains meaningful sixty-three years later.

BoPiMaFo therefore calls for:

1. A comprehensive Sabah Defence and Security Master Plan;

2. Major strengthening of Sabah’s air, maritime, surveillance and rapid-response capabilities;

3. Substantially greater Federal defence investment corresponding to Sabah’s strategic exposure;

4. Full implementation of the outstanding recommendations arising from the RCI on illegal immigrants and Project IC;

5. Stronger border, citizenship-documentation and population-integrity safeguards;

6. Meaningful Sabah participation in strategic decisions directly affecting Sabah; and

7. Clear Sabah-specific defence commitments in Budget 2027.

Malaysia was presented to North Borneo partly as a guarantee of greater security.

Today, developments immediately across Sabah’s northern maritime frontier are testing that guarantee.

The question is therefore no longer whether Sabah faces a changing security environment.

The Prime Minister himself has acknowledged that it does.

The question now is:

Will Putrajaya finally provide Sabah with the level of defence and security that our strategic position demands?

For Sabah, this is not an abstract geopolitical debate.

It is about our territory.

Our waters.

Our borders.

Our people.

And the security promise upon which Malaysia itself was formed.

DANIEL JOHN JAMBUN

President

Borneo’s Plight in Malaysia Foundation (BoPiMaFo)