KUCHING, March 8: State Reform Party (STAR) views the move to amend the Federal Constitution to recognise Sarawak as a region as “too little, too late”.
Its president, Lina Soo, said what Sarawak needed was for the federal government to return the oil and gas rights back to the state.
“Too little, too late. What’s the point to amend if all other illegal legislations altering MA63 are not declared null and void and expunged from the constitution?
“What is more urgent is to return our oil and gas usurped from Sarawak under the unconstitutional PDA (Petroleum Development Act 1974),” said Soo in a statement today.
She was commenting on Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Liew Vui Keong’s announcement yesterday that the federal cabinet had agreed to amend Article 1(2) of the Federal Constitution to restore the status of Sarawak and Sabah as equal partners with Peninsular Malaysia.
He said the decision to amend the constitution was reached at the Cabinet meeting last Wednesday.
Soo, a founding member of Sarawak Baru — a local coalition comprising STAR, Parti Bansa Dayak Sarawak Baru (PBDSB) and Sarawak Workers Party (SWP), said Sarawak must be compensated for its lost wealth since 1974.
“Sarawak must be compensated for the loss of wealth to Malaya plus all payments due under the treaty and restitution of what Malaya stole.
“And Borneonisation must be implemented. However, instead of validation of beached treaty, Sarawak should renegotiate a new union after getting popular mandate in a referendum,” she said.— DayakDaily
