North Borneo Federation

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The North Borneo Federation (NBF) was a proposed political entity which would have comprised the British Colonies of Sarawak, British North Borneo and the protectorate of Brunei. The proposed federation was particularly favoured by the Brunei People's Party, as an alternative to joining the Malaysian Federation; which was seen as an unnatural and unfavorable union by some. After the defeat of the pro-democracy revolutionaries in the Brunei Revolt, the idea was put to rest. Had the federation been formed, the capital city would probably have been Kuching, Kota Kinabalu or Bandar Seri Begawan (the historical capital of the region).

There remains a small group of people who favour the creation of such a state and desire separation from the rest of Malaysia. These groups see current state of affairs as being unfair to the people of North Borneo, particularly Sabah, as the majority of the region's wealth goes to the federal government; only about 5% of the region's oil revenue goes to the state government of Sabah and Sarawak respectively. However this separation is seen as unlikely due to the cultural and historical links between West Malaysia and the two states on Borneo as well as the minimal level of support for such a move. Although recent opposition parties in Sarawak Assembly have tried to evolve such federation, the matter was refused to be debated in the Assembly due to its sensitiveness, by the governing parties in Sarawak, namely the Barisan National (BN) leads by Pehin Seri Haji Abdul Taib Mahmud.

The sultanate of Brunei has traditionally opposed such a federation. When it was first proposed during the 1960's the Sultan favoured joining Malaysia, though, in the end, disagreement of the nature of such a federation stopped this from happening. Brunei sees itself as the rightful ruler of all Borneo and, as such, would demand to be the prominent nation in the federation, with the capital city as Bandar Seri Begawan. Brunei would be unwilling to become a small member state within such geographically large federation.