KUCHING, Nov 8: State Reform Party Sarawak (Star) president Lina Soo supports the call for an independence referendum.
This was in response to a call by Batu Kitang assemblyman Lo Khere Chiang who challenged the Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad to hold a referendum to determine if Sarawakians want independence.
However, she pointed out that merely issuing a challenge to the Prime Minister to allow an independence referendum falls far short of its desired effect.
“It is merely political rhetoric if there is no follow-up action,” she said.
Soo thus challenged Lo to put his words where his mouth is, by tabling a motion in the State Legislative Assembly (DUN) for a Sarawak Independence Referendum Ordinance.
According to Soo, in the constitutional history of Sarawak, there has never been any referendum held to ascertain the wishes of the people as to how they want to choose their political future.
“The people of Sarawak want to exercise their right to self-determination and I believe the majority of fully informed Sarawakians will support DUN in this gesture which supports human rights and the democratic right of the people to vote,” she said in a press statement today.
She said in 1963, a referendum to gauge the peoples’ wishes whether they wanted to federate with sovereign State Malaya was sidestepped by United Nations where they came up with the United Nations Mission Report which was adopted in lieu of an independence referendum.
Soo also agreed with Lo that Sarawak is practically a colony of Malaya where its oil and gas revenues have been exploited to the tune of billions of ringgit every year, with very little being returned to Sarawak.
“Our people are politically matured now and ready to make decision on the sovereignty and future of our nation,” she added.— DayakDaily
