See Chee How
KUCHING (July 16): This year’s Sarawak Day is of enormous significance because of the scale and tormenting effect of the Covid-19 pandemic, says Batu Lintang assemblyman See Chee How.
He said the pandemic has greatly affected Sarawak’s economy and also the livelihood of Sarawakians.
“The celebration (Sarawak Day) should not be made a formality with dinners, performances and ‘Tik Tok’ competitions because all Sarawakians are waiting for the state government to come up with policies and strategies to take Sarawak and its people out of the economic adversities.
“Our complete reliance on the federal government in combating the Covid-19 pandemic and the National Recovery Plan have proven to be costly for Sarawak too because many precious Sarawakian lives have been lost,” he said in a statement yesterday.
See also said that due to the economic consequences of the pandemic, lack of policy response and strategies to mitigate the harm have taken a heavy toll on all economic sectors and Sarawakians in general.
He also said the federal government was at wit’s end, trying to contain the pandemic, trying to prop up the economy, keeping Malaysians employed and supporting the Malaysian families in terms of food and healthcare.
“We should take a fair share of the flaw as we have allowed the federal government to completely dictate our response in this public health crisis.
“If we have taken the necessary executive and administrative decisions and actions, Sarawak could have responded better in helping the business sectors in Sarawak and taking care of the welfare and needs of Sarawakians more appropriately.
“We need our state leaders to show political will to assert our demand for autonomous powers and sovereign rights in the running of Sarawak’s socio-political and economic affairs, and to display our capability and wisdom to undertake the necessary. That is the essence and significance of celebrating Sarawak Day,” he said.
See says July 22 is a day to appraise, reinforce and revitalize everyone’s commitments for the restoration of Sarawak’s autonomous powers and sovereign rights in accordance with the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63).
He also said the Sarawak Day celebration this year would be more meaningful if the state administration could reveal a feasible and pragmatic Sarawak Recovery Plan comprising an effective public-health response to the coronavirus including the mutated Delta variant’s impact on health, the necessary economic intervention to the business sectors in Sarawak to ensure that economic growth would return and accelerate as consumers and businesses revert to pre-pandemic level of activity by year-end.
“With an effective and caring government to drive Sarawak’s recovery and take Sarawak out of this pandemic will facilitate our demand for the restoration of Sarawak’s autonomy powers and sovereign rights in accordance with MA63,” he said.