David Hii
KUCHING (April 24): The Sarawak Patriots Association is calling all Sarawakian MPs to push for Parliament to reconvene so all matters related to Sarawak could be heard and dealt with immediately, said its secretary David Hii Chin Loung.
He said this would also include all the necessary debates and amendments to the Federal Constitution to reclaim eroded and lost rights.
He said the Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg, who had announced the closure of schools in Sarawak’s red zones, was rebuffed by Senior Minister (Security Cluster) Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob yesterday.
Ismail said the state governments should refrain from taking the matter into their own hands and to consult with the Ministry of Education and Health Ministry before deciding on the closure of schools.
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“We, the Sarawak Patriots Association (SPA) support that the Sarawak Government had taken the initiative to decide and announce on the closure of schools, knowing well the implications it may have with the federal departments.
“This is a time of crisis of an expanding pandemic and we need to take the lead,” said Hii in a statement today.
He said it was a worrying trend as the Health Ministry stated that there were 39 clusters with 1,420 cases which involved sub-categories of schools and institutions that were detected from beginning of the year until April 20.
Furthermore, clusters involving educational institutions have doubled during the past week, he said.
Hii said SPA would like to remind the federal that Sarawak is not a state and should not be categorized as a state because the formation of Malaysia was based Sarawak’s (and Sabah’s) participation to form the expanded federation called Malaysia.
At all material times, he said, Sarawak was to be treated as an equal partner in line with the true intention and spirit of the Malaysia Agreement 1963.
In this regard and true spirit of the agreement, the power for education and health autonomy lies with the Sarawak Government and this should be returned to Sarawak immediately, he added.
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