International Law, History & Policy - Centre for International Law

Singapore in the Early Years 21
Act were null and void, or alternatively, that even if they were
valid, they did not bind the State of Kelantan. 46
The Malaysia Agreement 47 was concluded between the
Governments of the United Kingdom, the Federation of Malaya,
North Borneo, Sarawak and Singapore on 9 July 1963. Article 1
of the Agreement states:
1. The Colonies of North Borneo and Sarawak and the
State of Singapore shall be federated with the existing States of
the Federation of Malaya as the States of Sabah, Sarawak and
Singapore in accordance with the constitutional instruments
annexed to this Agreement and the Federation shall thereafter
be called ‘Malaysia’.
Pursuant to this Agreement, the Malayan Parliament passed
the Malaysia Act under which appropriate amendments were
made to the Federal Constitution to affect this new union. The
Kelantan Government argued that both the Malaysia Agreement
and the Malaysia Act were not binding on Kelantan on the following
grounds:
(a) that the Malaysia Act in effect abolished the Federation
of Malaya and this was contrary to the 1957 Federation
of Malaya Agreement;
(b) that the proposed changes required the consent of each
of the constituent states of the Federation of Malaya –
including Kelantan – and this had not been obtained;
46 See The Government of the State of Kelantan v The Government of the
Federation of Malay and Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra Al-Haj [1963]
MLJ 355.
47 See Agreement Between the Federation of Malaya, the United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, North Borneo,
Sarawak and Singapore, 1963.