KUCHING, Sept 9: Former Batu Lintang assemblyman Voon Lee Shan believes there would not be any security threats if Sarawak were to be independent from Malaysia.
After much debate on Sarawak security issues if it were to secede from Malaysia, Voon reckoned foreign powers would not pose a threat to Sarawak — which has no military power of its own — because superpowers in this region, such as China, would not gain anything from it.
In fact, he said, China, being a permanent member of the United Nations (UN) together with the United States (US), would be obliged to maintain peace and order when there is a threat, breach and act of aggression in any part of the world, including Sarawak.
“Someone posed me an issue and said independence is not good because we don’t have any army and proper defence from security threats from outside. My answer to this problem is that when Singapore exited Malaysia in 1965, it was at the height of communist insurgency in South East Asia and Singapore had no defence system, but it survived. No one attacked Singapore, not even the communists,” argued Voon.
He said Singapore lies on a lucrative shipping route where ships from the East to Indian Ocean and Africa passed through, and with such a strategic position, still no foreign power had occupied or invaded Singapore.
He also cited Brunei, a small country like Singapore, which had no submarines and their defence was known to be weak, yet no foreign power had attacked Brunei until now.
“Malaysia’s defence is also porous with a submarine that could not submerge and with only four working fighter jets, no foreign power is thinking of attacking Malaysia.
“China is the most powerful country in this region, but it never wished to go to war. In fact, it never did,” Voon pointed out.
As for Japan, he said by its constitution, it was not allowed to mobilise its army for any military aggression, except for defence only.
Whereas if (North) Korea were to attack Sarawak, Voon added, this would give an excuse for the US to destroy its leader, Kim Jong Un.
“Indonesia will not likely do it too because the Dayaks in Kalimatan will not be happy on the reason that the Dayaks here (in Sarawak) have close rapport with them,” he said.
Voon added that when Israel was attacked by the Arabs when their land was returned to their people, the US and other nations came to their rescue. And when Kuwait was attacked by Iraq, UN took immediate action and launched ‘Operation Desert Storm’ to liberate Kuwait.
“Therefore, the world wants peace, and the UN will monitor all unrest caused by external aggression, except civil conflicts within the nation.
“Most important is that the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63) is registered with the UN, and it has a political obligation to see conflicts should be resolved in the interest of the security of the region.
“The British still has a political responsibility to see security in our region is secured because we were once its colony and Britain should know their political responsibilities of making an invalid MA63,” Voon assured. — DayakDaily
