By Nur Ashikin Louis
KUCHING, July 23: Sarawak People’s Aspiration Party (Aspirasi) president Lina Soo is calling for Sarawak to push for what she termed to be “independence of international status”.
She said that Sarawak had attained independent status on July 22, 1963 and this was followed by the gazetting of the 22nd day of July every year as Sarawak Day since 2016 by the then Sarawak Chief Minister, the late Pehin Sri Adenan Satem.
Sarawak checks all the criteria to attain a nation or independent status namely, having a defined territory, permanent population, a government and administration and a system of law and taxation, but Soo said there is a second stage of independence – independent status at sovereign stage.
“For Sarawak’s independence of international status, it must be constitutional.
“Sarawak must also be internationally recognised, peaceful and it must have the consent of the people,” she said when delivering ‘Sarawak Day or Sarawak Independence Day? What Is The Way Forward?’ talk held at Grand Continental Hotel at Ban Hock Road today.
Soo further said in order to materialise the independence of international status, a referendum is needed to seek the opinion of the people of Sarawak’s self-determination on independence and serves as a data.
“In 2016, our State government declared Sarawak Day. The next stage is constitutional. We have to do it in State Legislative Assembly (DUN).
“Send our representatives to DUN to kickstart the referendum process and legislate for Sarawak Independence Referendum Ordinance. Once this is constitutionalised, then our DUN has the mandate to carry it to Putrajaya (Parliament).
“So from there, you have the data and then you can lobby for international recognition,” she added. — DayakDaily
