By Karen Bong
KUCHING, Feb 16: Sarawak government will assert authority to have its rights, especially those stipulated in the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63), including on tourism and sources of revenue like taxes reinstated either by way of amendments to the Sarawak Constitution or negotiations with the Federal government.
Minister of Tourism, Creative Industry and Performing Arts Dato Sri Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah, in highlighting this, stressed that the latest amendments to the Sarawak Constitution were little processes to elevate the status and strengthening the position of Sarawak to restore rights that have been eroded from the State since the formation of Malaysia.
“There might be some more amendments, or negotiations with the Federal government on the return of those rights.
“Even for tourism matters which are not even on the both Federal or State Lists. When a subject matter does not fall into either of the Lists, it is deemed a Residual List which comes under the State,” he told a press conference at the State Legislative Assembly (DUN) Complex today.
Abdul Karim, who is also Minister for Youth, Sports and Entrepreneur Development, elaborated that tourism matters were somehow subtly parked as a Federal matter in the 90s without consulting the Sarawak government, which he viewed as wrong.
This matter, he pointed out, is among the many other things the Sarawak government needed to look into, given the size of the State that is as big as Peninsular Malaysia along with its wealth of resources.
“We have the continental shelf, Luconia Shoals and so on. Who is supposed to look after them? We are not greedy and we are open for negotiations because we want our share as well including the funds for tourism which Sarawak deserves much bigger,” he said.
He also mentioned about the distribution of development funds throughout the last 50 years which was disproportionate especially for Sarawak and Sabah when these two Borneo states should be treated equally as they formed Malaysia along with Peninsula Malaysia.
“This fact was recognised not only at the State level but also at the national level, be it the Prime Minister and other political party leaders including (Democratic Action Party secretary-general) Lim Guan Eng, who even said that Sarawak cannot be placed on the same level with other states.
“This is according to the history of the formation of Malaysia; the signatories were the Federation of Malaya (now Peninsular Malaysia and the states under it), one Sabah, one Sarawak, one Singapore and one United Kingdom,” he reiterated.
This made all the more reason for Sarawak to demand to have a representative in the Inland Revenue Board (IRB) in order to know the amount of revenue made and the mechanism for the distribution of money, he added.
However, Abdul Karim clarified that strengthening Sarawak’s position is not with the view to exit Malaysia but to defend the rightful rights of Sarawak, equitable assets or resources.
“We love to be with Malaysia. Our forefathers have wanted to be in Malaysia but we do not want to be on par with states like Perlis, Melaka, Penang, not to say that we look down on them, but our status is different,” he said. — DayakDaily
