Sarawak should also get 40 per cent of total federal revenue collected from us, complains PBK president

KUCHING, Feb 15 2026: Parti Bumi Kenyalang (PBK) president Voon Lee Shan complained today that  there is no reason for Sarawak to be treated differently, knowing that Sabah is entitled to 40 per cent of revenue collected by the federal coffers, in the Federation of Malaysia.

PBK president Voon  Lee Shan: If one founding territory receives structural fiscal protection, and the other does not, constitutional equity is offended.  

“What Sabah gets, Sarawak also should get. Further, anything less transforms partnership into hierarchy or colonialism,”he said in a statement when responding to Premier Abang Johari Openg’s revelation that the Sarawak government was asking for a 20 per cent share of federal revenues collected in Sarawak.

Voon explained that both Sabah and Sarawak stood in identical positions in 1963, saying that they were Borneo territories and negotiated safeguards.

“Both entered Malaysia on the basis of autonomy assurances,” he said.

“If one founding territory receives structural fiscal protection, and the other does not, constitutional equity is offended.

“The law is not merely text. It is principle. And equity demands parity,” Voon, who is also a practising lawyer, said in a statement.

He said Malaya or the federal government should know a true federation is built upon mutual respect, balanced power and structural fairness.

He said the federal government must know that federalism is part of Malaysia’s basic structure where founding territories are all of equal status.

He said if Sabah’s 40 per cent revenue entitlement is recognised as constitutionally entrenched, then denying Sarawak equivalent structural treatment creates arbitrary inequality and discrimination between co-founders of the nation, adding that such inequality distorts the federal balance envisioned in 1963.

“Sarawak is not asking for privilege but, Sarawak is asserting constitutional symmetry.

“The federal government should understand, a federation survives not merely on law, but on trust.

“Sarawak contributes significantly to national wealth, particularly through petroleum and natural resources. Yet development disparities remain stark in many rural regions of the state,” he stressed.

He said political morality demands that revenue extraction be matched with fair return, saying that a government that takes disproportionately while returning inadequately weakens democratic legitimacy.