By DayakDaily Team
KUCHING, July 19: Flying the old Sarawak Crown flag is not an offense, and those who chose to fly it on Sarawak Day are not going to change their citizenship of Sarawak for that of another nation.
Sarawak Association for Peoples’ Aspirations (SAPA) president Dominique Ng stated this in response to recent remarks by Minister of Tourism, Creative Industry and Performing Arts Dato Sri Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah, who likened the “flying of Sarawak Colonial Flag on Sarawak Day celebrations as an act of ignorance about Sarawak’s history.”
Ng explained that the old Sarawak flag, otherwise known as the old ‘Sarawak Crown flag’, due to the crown in the middle, which has been flown by local Sarawak nationalists every July 22 is not a colonial flag.
“Actually the old Sarawak flag, first introduced by first Rajah James Brooke was modelled on the Brooke family coat of arms. In 1870, the second Rajah Charles Brooke altered the colours to their current form of black, red and yellow, to reflect the cloths in which gifts were presented to him by the three main communities: Dayaks (black), Chinese (red) and Malays (yellow).
“The Gold Crown represented both the European tradition and the five divisions of Sarawak. Those who want to check these facts are welcomed to visit to the Brooke Gallery located at Fort Margherita, at Petra Jaya, near the giant flag pole by the Sarawak Legislative Assembly Complex,” he said in a statement today.
Regarding the opinion that those flying the old Sarawak flags still want to be subjects of the United Kingdom (UK), Ng assured Abdul Karim and the Sarawak government that these people who fly the old Kingdom flags on Sarawak Day are all red-blooded Sarawak nationalists.
“They are not going to change their citizenship of Sarawak for that of another nation,” he added.
Meanwhile, Ng also stated that SAPA will be organising its annual 722 gathering to commemorate the Sarawak Independence Day at Padang Merdeka on July 22.
On the eve of the celebration (July 21), there will also host a 722 fundraising dinner, with tickets are being sold for the event. — DayakDaily
