Cobbold Commission

The Cobbold Commission was a commission of British and Malaysian governments to clarify the question of whether the British colonies of Sarawak and North Borneo did not want to join the planned new State or Malaysia. Additional responsibilities included the preparation of draft Constitution of Malaysia.

The Commission was appointed on 16 January 1962 as head was Lord Cobbold, determined that had previously been Governor of the Bank of England. In addition, the following persons served:

  • Wong Pow Nee, Chief Minister of Penang
  • Muhammad Ghazali Shafie, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Foreign Affairs
  • Anthony Abell, former Governor of Sarawak
  • David Watherston, former Secretary-General of Malaya

In July the Commission presented its report completed and handed him over on August 1, 1962 denominated results. :

  • The State of Malaysia is to be formed.
  • All partners should make equal rights in the Union.

In preparing the report, the envoys of both sides in most respects were in agreement; in a number of areas - Religious Affairs, Head of State, Justice, public institutions, Federal Constitution, finance, education and regionalization of government services - but there were differences. However, the biggest controversy was the question of the proper time period for the restructuring of the administration. While the British proposed a transitional period of 3 to 7 years, insisted the Malaysian ambassador to a rapid change within 12 months.

Some of the points particularly controversial were therefore deleted from the final version of the report, prompting Lord Cobbold to a series of letters to the British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan, Tunku Abdul Rahman and the Secretary of State for the Colonies, Reginald Maudling, in which he the deleted passages explained in detail.

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