Ng (centre, rear), Hapeni (left) and SAPA committee member Alim Mideh sing the old Sarawak Anthem as the old and new Sarawak flags are raised. – Photo by Roystein Emmor.
KUCHING (July 23): Sarawak Association For People’s Aspiration (SAPA) president Dominique Ng Kim Ho is sad and unhappy that a prominent Sarawak politician said the declaration of the Sarawak Independence Day by former chief minister Pehin Sri Adenan Satem was a mistake.
“There was no mistake at all and the late Tok Nan had meant it when he had on July 22 declared it as the Sarawak Independence Day for whatever reason he may have.
“The actual reason why he had declared July 22 as the the Sarawak Independence Day is that he wanted to send out a clear and strong message that Sarawakians want to have a real Independence Day,” Ng said at a simple ceremony to mark Sarawak Independence Day outside his office at Poh Kwong Park yesterday.
Led by Ng and SAPA deputy president Hapeni Fadil, a small group of SAPA activists and Sarawak nationalists gathered as the two Sarawak flags were raised and the old state anthem ‘Fair Land Sarawak’ was sung.
This is the third time that SAPA had organised the flags raising ceremony and singing of the Sarawak anthem to mark Sarawak Independence Day on July 22.
Ng was also sad at Sarawak politicians especially those on the government side in recent years have tried to downgrade the significance and importance of Sarawak Independence Day to merely a Sarawak Day holiday.
In his brief speech, Ng explained the symbolism and significance behind the old Sarawak flag and the old Sarawak anthem.
According to him, the old Sarawak flag has been flown as the official flag from the 1840s until 1973, for more than 100 years.
“As for the anthem, the music and tune of the song has been sung since the 1870s but with a different set of lyrics and the anthem was then called by another name,” he stressed.
“But from 1946, the song with the lyrics ‘Fair Land Sarawak’ has been sung in official functions until 1973. So that the old anthem too has a long and distinguished history behind it.
“And that both the old Sarawak flag and anthem was for the time of a long century when Sarawak was actually a nation that was free, independent and sovereign.