KUCHING, Feb 17: Changing the designation of Chief Minister to ‘Premier’ demonstrated the desire of the Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) government for greater autonomy by clearly demarcating between the roles of Sarawak and Sabah as founding partners and the members of state within Peninsula Malaysia.
Sarawak United Peoples’ Party (SUPP) Stakan chairman Dato Sim Kiang Chiok said the Branch joined the rest of Sarawak in embracing the new future of Sarawak as an autonomous region in Malaysia.
“Our power in the form of Immigration control is one of the few yardsticks that gave form to our autonomous status all these while.
“But now after the amendment to Articles 1(2) and 160(2) of the Federal Constitution, we (Sarawak) can begin to make efforts to regain more of our autonomous rights from the process of devolution of powers from the central (Putrajaya) to Sarawak,” he said in a statement today.
Elaborating, Sim explained that within the Federation of Malaya the terms ‘Menteri Besar’ and ‘Chief Minister’ are used to describe the heads of governments and Sarawak’s move to re-designate the term to ‘Premier’ will make it easier for a differentiation to be made.
“In Malaya, the term Menteri Besar is used in states with Sultans while the term Chief Minister is used in states with Governors to differentiate between the two. Therefore, for Sarawak to continue to call our head of government Chief Minister could confuse the situation to mean that we are equal to Penang and Malacca when we are not,” he added.
Welcoming the move by the GPS government in changing the title of the head of the government from Chief Minister to ‘Premier’ with the passing of the Bill recently, Sim looks forward to more moves towards restoring Sarawak’s dignity as a founding member of Malaysia.
“We see the actions in the DUN as just the beginning of much more to come for Sarawak and we are happy to note that the GPS government is not resting on its laurels but moving forward rapidly after the successful amendments to the Federal Constitution,” he said.
On the renaming Assistant Minister to ‘Deputy Minister’, he also viewed it as a logical one to give more heft to the post especially now when the Deputy Ministers play a more significant role in ministries with combined portfolios.
“In Sarawak we only have 10 ministerial spots and as such the Deputy Ministers in Ministries with several portfolios have more focused fields to work on and they effectively deputise for the ministers in many ways.
“As such, we in the Stakan Branch feel that changing the term to Deputy Minister is only logical and should not warrant any controversy,” he added. — DayakDaily
