KUCHING, August 21: Sarawak United Peoples’ Party (SUPP) has challenged the Pakatan Harapan (PH) government to state when it will return the state’s rights as enshrined in the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63).
Its Youth chief, Michael Tiang, reminded PH leaders that restoring these rights were contained in their own Buku Harapan.
“If not within the first 100 days, then what is the timeline for the Pakatan Harapan government to restore Sarawak’s position to its rightful place in line with MA63?” asked Tiang in a statement today.
He noted that the first session of the 14th Parliament session ended last week but no PH lawmaker raised the issue of restoring the rights of Sarawak and Sabah.
“Sarawak Pakatan chief Chong Chieng Jen needs to explain to the people of Sarawak whether Pakatan MPs are going to table a motion to amend the Federal Constitution to restore Sarawak’s position and status as one of the three founding states for the Federation of Malaysia,” said Tiang, who is also a political secretary to the Chief Minister.
Tiang recalled that on May 1 this year, Democratic Action Party (DAP) secretary-general Lim Guan Eng visited Sabah and announced that PH would immediately move to amend the Federal Constitution to restore Sabah and Sarawak’s position as equal partners in Malaysia once they come to power.
On a related matter, Tiang added: “We are very much concerned after we’ve heard from Mohd Rafizi Ramli (Parti Keadilan Rakyat vice-president) that once (Datuk Seri) Anwar Ibrahim succeeds Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad to become the eighth prime minister, he would immediately return the rights under MA63 to Sabah.
“Does that mean this can’t be done when the federal government is presently under Tun Dr Mahathir? We know all about politics, and God knows when Anwar Ibrahim can take over the helm from Tun Mahathir.” — DayakDaily
