By Adrian Lim
KUCHING, April 5: Parti Bumi Kenyalang (PBK) has reminded the people not to fall prey to the sweet talk of political leaders from Peninsular Malaysia.
Its president Voon Lee Shan in a statement today said there is a need to study the proposal seeking for an amendment to Article 160 of the Federal Constitution to recognise Sarawak as a region as mentioned by Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin during his visit here recently.
He pointed out Article 1 of the Federal Constitution states that Malaysia is a federation while a federation is defined as a group of states with a central government.
Hence, Voon opined that Malaysia is not a country but administered by a central government and independent in internal affairs.
“There is a need to study the whole thing holistically. Please do not again fall into the trap of ear-pleasing words of political leaders from Malaya.
“We had enough of sweet talk from them even before Malaya changed its name to Malaysia,” he said.
Voon said the word “wilayah’ in Malay if adopted for Sarawak could mean Sarawak as a Federal Territory of the Federation of Malaysia.
Thus, he added, Sarawak could then be called “Wilayah Persekutuan Sarawak” and this will put Sarawak in the same position as Labuan and Kuala Lumpur which are called “Wilayah Persekutuan Labuan” or “Wilayah Persekutuan Kuala Lumpur respectively.
Voon opined that “wilayah” could also denote Sarawak as a province within the Federation of Malaysia thus putting Sarawak at a much lower status than other states in Malaysia.
Therefore, he believed the only possible way to restore Sarawak to its original position is to be released from its union with the federation of Malaysia to be an independent country. — DayakDaily
