KUCHING, Nov 14: Parti Bansa Dayak Sarawak Baru (PBDSB) agrees with the recent statement by State Reform Party Sarawak (STAR) president Lina Soo that the recent motion to form a high level Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63) task force is just ‘mere lip service’ for the upcoming parliamentary election.
In a press statement today, PBDSB said members of the State Legislative Assembly (DUN) appeared to be intentionally dragging the issue, but leaving just enough “trails of sweetness” so that voters must vote for the current BN Sarawak regime in order to see the conclusive findings of the MA63 task force being tabled with federal government later.
“Just like the NCR (native customary rights) land issue, a special taskforce was created as well for MA63 to negotiate with the federal government on outstanding issues relating to constitutional safeguards and special rights under MA63 but like the NCR land issue, the impression given again is that there is no urgency of action to resolve the matter soonest possible.”
PBDSB agreed with STAR that MA63 is an international treaty and is not subject for negotiation, unless of course, all of the signatories — UK, Malaya, Sarawak, Sabah and Singapore, which left the Federation in 1965 — return to the negotiating table again.
“There is still no concrete assurance given by the Sarawak government on how to ensure that the federal government will comply with MA63, given that Sarawak gives away its resources with one-third economic support to the federation and has to beg for a pittance in return as always in past years, when it comes to the Malaysia (national) budget allocation, seems like it is never been enough for Sarawak’s development to be on par with Malaya. It seems more like Sarawak is only being use to develop Malaya instead, which in many Sarawakians’ view, it is an unpalatable truth after 54 years.”
PBDSB noted that despite all the media coverage stating that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak is open towards the MA63 issue, the federal government has not shown any initiative nor concrete action to fulfil the terms of MA63 in recent years.
The party opined that the state government should make a sincere effort to resolve the issue and not politicise it as a seasonal topic as leverage to stay in power.
“This issue affects the well being of our future generations and need to be resolved for the betterment of Sarawak’s future.” — DayakDaily
