KUCHING, Sept 9: Sarawak would have been as rich as Singapore or Brunei today if it had not formed the Malaysia Federation, asserts Sarawak for Sarawakians (S4S) spokesman Alex Leong.
Responding to former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s live interview on Great People Television’s Facebook page yesterday, Leong said the former had expressed regret that some people had brought up issues and ideas like ‘Sarawak for Sarawakians’, ‘Sabah for Sabahans’, and that they should think of themselves as Malaysians first.
“Mahathir’s statement was reported in a national news portal saying Sabah and Sarawak are better off being part of Malaysia and that both Borneo states became richer after the formation of Malaysia in 1963.
“Brunei and Singapore were clever to leave the Malaysian Federation and today, they have developed into prosperous and advance countries.
“We Sarawakians are peace-loving and good people but we also have great expectations. However, we were mistreated and rewarded with unfair treatment, which we still are until today,” he laments.
Leong conceive that the S4S movement is gaining popularity because many Sarawakians believed they have endured hardship for 58 years.
“Many Sarawakians now realised how Peninsular Malaysia has made Sarawak its cash machine by extracting billions of dollars from the state’s oil and gas resources.
“We have a dream, let us put an end to this ill treatment of being their ATM nightmare,” he added.
Leong urged the people to vote for parties that want to leave Malaysia through the Referendum process in the coming elections and elect ‘referendum candidates’ to enter the Sarawak Legislative Assembly so they can motion the referendum Ordinance. — DayakDaily
