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Borneo states should be translated ‘negara-negara Borneo’

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KUCHING: Sarawak lost nothing, not even one sen, after Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) members of parliament abstained when the recently proposed Constitution Amendment Bill 2019 was put to the vote.

“On the contrary we have affirmed our Sarawak identity, pride and sovereignty! After all, even if we asked for a fish and we were given a rotting stinking fish, it does not mean we must eat the toxic fish! Let good sense prevail,” said State Reformed Party (Star) president, Lina Soo.

She said MA63 is sacrosanct and will not disappear, our Continental Shelf under Unclos (UN Law of the Seas) will not disappear and Sarawak is always landowner with 100 per cent economic rights over its oil and gas.

Lina Soo

“Sarawak rights are always there; what we need is a government with the political will to enforce them by legal means and executive actions, not by recycling Article 1(2) which obliterates our nation-state or ‘negara’ status,” she stressed in a press statement yesterday.

Soo described PH desperate action in asking for Sarawak MPs to support the proposed amendment Bill as akin to “asking us for a blank cheque for them to sign”.

She said when the amendment was finally revealed at the last minute, it was all wrong because the phrases (a) “the States of Malaya” and (b) “Borneo States” – as per MA63 – had disappeared.

“When they were rewritten, the English version was correct; the States of Malaya and Borneo States reappeared, exactly as per MA63. But the translation to Bahasa Malaysia was wrong! Borneo States became Negeri-Negeri Borneo,” she explained.

Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad tabled the second reading of the proposed amendment Bill on last Wednesday. The first reading was tabled by defacto Law Minister Datuk VK Liew on April 4.

Soo said when PH Sarawak MPs came up one after another to ask Sarawak MPs for support, they never revealed how the amendment looked like.

Saying that “state(s)” could be very confusing, she said the word had several meanings. It could mean an independent sovereign nation (or negara) or a self-governing state with a permanent population, a government and political system also meaning “negara” like Sarawak, Sabah, Scotland, Catalonia, etc.

State could also mean a smaller component of a nation-state like the Malaya states called “negeri-negeri”, she said.

“If we agree that Sarawak is a ‘negeri’, then we are equating Sarawak with one ‘negeri’ in Malaya such as Perlis! This is a trap that will lock Sarawak in permanently as a ‘negeri’, and not a ‘negara’.”

Soo noted that Borneo States should be translated as “Negara-Negara Borneo iaitu Sabah dan Sarawak”.

Dr Mahathir in an interview in October 2018 admitted that Sarawak and Sabah are two “negara”.

He is correct as in the MA63, Annex B which is the Constitution of the State of Sabah, Article 1(i) stipulates that there shall be a Head of State for Sabah to be called the Yang di-Pertua Negara. This constitutional statement is the proof that indeed Sabah and Sarawak are two “negara” upon the formation of the Federation of Malaysia!

Soo said the 1976 amendment was unconstitutional so another fake amendment over an earlier illegal amendment can’t make it right.

The constitutions of Sarawak and Sabah are annexes to MA63 constituting its integral components before the existence of the Malaysia Constitution, she added.

She also rubbished Sabah State Advisor, Zainnal Ajamain’s claim that Sarawak lost billions by not supporting the amendment.

Soo challenged Ajamain first to give the definition of “equal partners” with Malaya.

“Does he mean one-third of 222 parliamentary seats, one-third of national annual budget, and Sarawak and Sabah will get a prime minister as well? Or does he mean Sabah and Sarawak will get two-thirteenth of 222 seats, as ‘negeri-negeri’ at par with 11 Malaya ‘negara’?” she asked.

Soo said that Sarawak was once an independent sovereign nation with no external debt. Today it has become a pauper state due to many unconstitutional federal laws which have usurped its economic rights and sovereignty. It is foolhardy to think that this time around, promises of billions will materialise just by making one amendment.

“If Sarawak has the political will, we would not be talking about billions. Our rights exclusively applied on our own land would bring us prosperity by the trillions!” she said.

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