KUCHING, Oct 8: Democratic Action Party (DAP) leaders and members have been urged not to twist Parti Bumi Kenyalang’s (PBK) stand over the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63) and the party’s mission to fight for Sarawak’s independence in an attempt to confuse the public.
Responding to recent criticism from DAP Bandar Kuching MP Dr Kelvin Yii that PBK is contradicting itself in claiming that the party can protect the rights of Sarawakians under MA63, PBK president Voon Lee Shan stressed that the party has made it clear from the beginning that its objective was to set Sarawak free and independent by revoking the MA63.
“This has never changed. There is nothing we need to protect in MA63. We want it to be revoked. We want to restore Sarawak to its original position before Malaysia came into being. This will be the best protection for Sarawak.
“Singapore left Malaysia in 1965, and we could always follow how Singapore did it at that time. We have done our homework well, and there is nothing wrong for Sarawak to seek independence peacefully and by legal means,” he said in a statement today.
Voon elaborated that MA63 was an invalid international agreement due to willful breaches of the terms and conditions therein.
Being colonies at the time MA63 was signed on July 9, 1963, he added that Sabah, Sarawak, and Singapore had no legal capacity to make the agreement with the United Kingdom and Malaya, which was then already independent.
Hitting back, Voon said DAP is irrelevant to Sarawak, which has to follow the directives of its Malayan bosses, and the party had not done enough for Sarawak’s interests as they could not even fulfil the promises made during the 14th General Election (GE14) in 2018 when Pakatan Harapan took power.
“They were firm promises by DAP Sarawak leaders, including Chong Chieng Jen, for 20 per cent oil royalties and 50 per cent of all taxes collected from Sarawak to be returned to the State. Where are these now?
“There should not be any excuse to say the government had no money or was in debt when there was lots of money from oil and gas from Sabah and Sarawak. Sabahans and Sarawakians should not be denied this privilege,” he said.
Voon believes that when DAP was in power, they could have influenced policies, including revoking Petroleum Development Act (PDA) 1974 so that all oil and gas resources could be restored to Sarawak.
“Why want 20 per cent royalty only and not 100 per cent when oil and gas resources are ours? It is believed that Sarawak lost about RM100 billion annually from its oil and gas wealth after the passing of the PDA 1974.
“But what Sarawak got back each year was a very negligible amount and mostly less than RM5 billion as development fund,” he said, adding that this showed that DAP lacks ideas and is helpless.”
Coupled with DAP’s failure to push to increase the ratio of parliamentary seats for Sarawak, remaining with 31 out of 222 seats that could not affect any law and policies that could be detrimental to Sarawak, Voon reminded voters that a vote for DAP is a vote for Malaya.
“Any seat won by DAP in Sarawak is a seat won by Malaya and will be the voice of Malaya,” he added, advising voters to be wise in their decision. — DayakDaily
