See Chee How
KUCHING (Sept 16): The federal Perikatan Nasional (PN) government has certainly missed the chance to make this Malaysia Day special and to fortify the ‘Malaysian Family’ concept pledged by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob. This is according to Parti Sarawak Bersatu (PSB) leadership council member See Chee How in his Malaysia Day message.
It is already a daunting task to envisage the new Prime Minister, who is an Umno vice chairman, taking Sarawak and Sabah’s autonomous rights and special privileges pursuant to the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63) seriously, he said in a press statement yesterday.
Ismail Sabri introduced the ‘Malaysian Family’ concept in his maiden speech as PM to urge the people of different religious, racial and ethnic divides to help the nation recover from the current economic and health situation.
However, he has failed in this pledge and overlooked the need to be inclusive to address the special privileges, rights and interests of Sarawakians and Sabahans, See added.
“Not only is this Malaysia Day sharing the same theme as that designated for the celebration of this year’s National Day on Aug 31, it is a replication of the theme used last year.”
“However, I would call on the Prime Minister to reveal the details and timeline on how his administration will take steps to restore and return the special privileges and autonomous powers and rights to Sarawak and Sabah, in accordance with MA63 when he attends the Malaysia Day celebration in Kota Kinabalu on Sept 16,” See said.
“Hopefully, it is not a one-liner, as it was presented in the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Political Stability and Transformation.”
Learning the lesson from our Sarawakian experience between May 2018 to February 2020, the PSB leader argued that it would be appealing to Sarawakians that the State government not be directly allied or aligned with the federal government so they can be fully committed in championing the rights and privileges of Sarawakians under MA63.
See, who is Batu Lintang assemblyman, cautioned Sarawakians of Umno’s potential power play especially on its capability to further erode state rights enshrined in MA63.
The return of Umno to the reign of the country’s administration will prove to be the biggest hindrance and impediment to the true spirits of the confederation and partnership of Sarawak, Sabah and the Federation of the Malayan States, he opined.
He recalled that Umno had been the mainstay of the federal government from the birth of Malaysia in 1963 until they were ousted in 2018. In those 45 years, not only did the federal government not make efforts to take legislative, executive or other actions as may be required to implement the assurances, undertakings and recommendations to afford and safeguard the autonomous rights and special privileges of Sarawak and Sabah, he added, rather the constitutional and legal power and rights of the two East Malaysian States were systemically eroded.
However, he observed that the change of federal administration in 2018 led to reforms and fundamental changes to the effect of restoration and devolution of autonomous rights and special privileges to Sarawak and Sabah, pursuant to the MA63. And 17 out of 21 subject matters were agreed upon while four others were still being discussed, he noted.
He said the former BN component parties then left the BN national coalition to form a new state coalition but remained as the opposition in the federal parliament. For the first time, he said, the Sarawak state government was vocal and most determined to pursue Sarawak’s special privileges, rights and interests.
That was pivotal to the unifying and mobilization of all Sarawakians to advance Sarawak’s pursuit under the MA63, he pointed out. However, the reign of the Pakatan Harapan (PH) federal administration was short-lived.
In 2020, the PN coalition had replaced PH with GabunganParti Sarawak (GPS) joining them and Umno now restored to the driving seat.
The special federal cabinet committee for the restoration of the autonomous rights and special privileges to Sarawak and Sabah in accordance with MA63, See added, was disbanded and all the progress achieved in the devolution of administrative and legislative powers to Sarawak and Sabah were then shelved.