KUCHING: Members of Sarawak Patriot Association (SPA) are astonished at the announcement of a federal party leader that if they come to power in GE15, there will be three Deputy Prime Ministers (DPM), one from the Peninsular, one from Sarawak and one from Sarawak.
“It’s 59 years…overdue. Why didn’t the federal party leader announce that if they were returned to power, they would return all the rights and privileges as stated in MA63 back to Sarawak and Sabah?”questioned SPA chairman Datuk John Lau Pang Heng in a press statement here yesterday.
“MA63 is our birthright. As the saying goes, “A bird in hand (MA63) is worth two (DPMs) in the bush”. Having a DPM in the federal cabinet is less important than redeeming our MA63 rights.”
“With MA63 incorporated into the Federal Constitution, Sarawak has all the legislative, executive and any other means to ensure compliance and implementation.
“Anything else to the contrary is just political procrastination and an attempt to kick the can further down the road. Our Sarawak leadership must make the fight for Sarawak’s rights under MA63 its priority as it has been given an overwhelming mandate by Sarawakians during the Sarawak elections in December 2021,” he said.
Minos added that for the parliamentary elections, a bi-partisan government was the best solution for Sabah and Sarawak to ensure compliance and implementation of MA63.
“A dominant one party federal government will likely put MA63 in the back burner. Doesn’t this run contrary to the spirit and principles of MA63, as mutually agreed upon by all partners prior to coming on board in the ‘formation’ of Malaysia?,” he asked.
“As the late Pehin Sri Adenan Satem (former chief minister) said, Sarawak’s relationship with the federal government must be constitutional correct. He was right to say anything not constitutionally right would defeat the purpose of MA63,” Lau added.
“As it is, after the recent constitutional amendments, we must ensure it stays correct and the pivotal consideration is the alignment with the correct partners at the federal level — a multi-racial and multi-religious coalition in sync with secular fairland Sarawak’s unadulterated acceptance way of life, oblivious to race and religion.
“This is the sugar cane which the late Tun Jugah (Malaysian politician of Iban descent) envisioned … sweet from beginning to end and not otherwise,” Lau said.
