By DayakDaily Team
KUCHING, May 5: The Sarawak government should urge the federal government to amend the constitution to reinstate Sarawak’s status as a country within the Malaysian federation, says Parti Bumi Kenyalang’s president, Voon Lee Shan.
According to Voon, Malaysia was formed as a federation by Singapore, Sabah, and Sarawak along with Malaya on September 16, 1963, under the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63), which was signed by all four entities on July 9 1963.
“Therefore, Sabah and Sarawak should still maintain their status as countries and not as States or as regions. At the same time, the federal constitution does not say Sabah and Sarawak are regions within the federation of Malaysia. At the moment, Sarawak and Sabah are States in the federation of Malaysia,” said Voon in his press statement today.
To him, the attempt of the Sarawak government to change its status from a State to a region within Malaysia would be merely symbolic and lack legal significance.
He also said that Singapore’s departure from the federation of Malaysia in 1965 and subsequent declaration of independence highlights the perception that Singapore, Sabah, and Sarawak were integrated to expand Malaya’s influence, becoming its colonies, which prompted Malaya to rename itself to Malaysia after enlarging its territories.
It is challenging to convince Sabah and Sarawak that they are not Malaya’s colonies, said Voon, as it is a political rule that colonial masters are allowed to take all natural resources of colonised countries, which led to Sabah and Sarawak to lose their oil and gas resources under the Petroleum Development Act 1974 (PDA74). — DayakDaily
