Yong holding an old Sabah flag. Behind it is the current State Flag.
KOTA KINABALU: Former chief minister Datuk Yong Teck Lee has reiterated calls for more historical facts on Sabah prior to the formation of the Federation of Malaysia to be included in the school syllabus.
The Sabah Progressive Party president said this is important more so with the state finally recognising and celebrating Sabah Day this year, which falls on Aug 31.
“For us in SAPP, we are thankful that after over 10 years of campaigning for Sabah Day to be an official day of celebration, it has finally come true,” he said.
However, Yong said many, including Sabahans themselves, are not aware that Sabah Day is to commemorate the date - Aug 31, 1963, when Sabah became self-governing.
He said a recent statement by Tungku assemblyman Assaffal Allan saying that Sabah Day is not to commemorate Sabah’s independence, but rather its "self-governance" at that time, was also not entirely wrong.
Assaffal had said that the term to commemorate Sabah’s independence on Sabah Day come Aug 31, was not right.
Yong said he somewhat agreed with this statement because at that time, there was no instrument from the British to declare Sabah’s complete independence as a republic.
“We were given full governance for two weeks until the Federation of Malaysia was formed on Sept 16, 1963,” he said.
He also said that the two-week gap was for the time needed by the United Nations’ (UN) fact-finding mission to confirm to the UN secretary-general that the people of north Borneo - Sabah and Sarawak - at that time wanted to form the Federation of Malaysia.
“I hope with this Sabah Day celebration this year, we will be able to appreciate and understand our history better,” said the Sabah-nominated assemblyman.
Yong said it is time for this information to be included in the Sejarah (history) lessons in all Malaysian school syllabi.
“This celebration will inadvertently mark Sabah’s 60th anniversary or diamond jubilee,” he said.
SAPP was among the first to propose an official Sabah Day celebration for the state and this year, Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Seri Dr Jeffrey Kitingan managed to turn it into a reality.
