KUCHING, Mar 12: Pending Assemblywoman Violet Yong claims that the Sarawak government under Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) has downgraded the state’s status from one of the three founding territories to one of the 13 states in Malaysia.
Showing a circular issued by Sarawak Accountant dated Aug 15, 2019, which appeared in a Chinese daily, Yong said the circular had directed that all cheque payments to the state government be issued to ‘Kerajaan Negeri Sarawak’ as the payee instead of ‘Sarawak Government’ as it had previously.
“I would like to call upon GPS to explain the circular as Sarawak Government has never made any official announcement pertaining to the changes and everyone has been kept in the dark over this issue.
“I am perplexed over such behaviour. Sarawak GPS has repeatedly declared that Sarawak is not a ‘Negeri’ but one of the three founding territories of Malaysia, but now they made the changes to the name of the cheque, particularly the insertion of ‘Negeri’. This has in fact downgraded Sarawak’s status,” Yong said in a press conference today.
She added that such act was in essence an erosion of the rights enshrined under Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63) in particular to the status of English as the second official language of Sarawak.
“GPS has been ranting and shouting all this while that only local Sarawak parties like them were able to defend the rights of Sarawak but on the other hand, they’ve quietly made the changes and Sarawakians are kept in the dark over this matter. I therefore call on the state GPS government to immediately retract the circular,” Yong said.—DayakDaily
