THIS year marks the 55th anniversary of Malaysia, and for Sarawak at least, recent events appear to suggest a search for its “true” identity is gathering pace.
A progressively grander state-sponsored commemoration of July 22 occurred this year, with huge banners proclaiming it as Sarawak’s “Independence Day”.
The late Tan Sri Adenan Satem had officially declared it a state public holiday when he was chief minister and designated it as a rather anodyne “Sarawak Day”. Adenan had acceded to growing popular clamour for state assertiveness that public recognition of July 22 indicates. But, what exactly does the date denote?
It happened that on July 22, 1963, the late Tan Sri Stephen Kalong Ningkan officially became the state’s first chief minister, ushering in less than two months of self-government before Malaysia came into being, signifying the real end of British colonial administration of the state. Independence for Sarawak thus came simultaneously with the official proclamation of Malaysia on Sept 16 of the same year.
But, narrating this chain of events does not sit well with those now loudly campaigning for the state’s supposed lost rights under the Malaysia Agreement of 1963 (MA63).
By the telling of such campaigners (and it now appears to have gained not just the tacit but open support of those in the state government), MA63 was consummated by Sarawak signing on as an already independent entity, giving it the status of an international treaty that purportedly supersedes even the Federal Constitution.
For good measure, it is being bandied about that MA63 was an agreement among Malaya, Sarawak, Sabah and Singapore and not the latter three entities becoming additional states to the eleven of then Malaya to become Malaysia. It would be an interesting academic exercise were it not to have implications which can rock the very foundations of Malaysia as we have come to know it, if we are to take all the above seriously.
It can potentially morph into not just demands for greater political autonomy or the return of whatever existing state rights deemed to have been lost over the past 55 years. This looks like it could be a call for an entirely new and altogether different Malaysia!
More sober heads, both at state and federal levels, must now sit back and take stock. Firstly, it is important to try to establish why we are where we are now at this possibly fraught juncture in our collective journey under the Malaysian federation.
A general sense of unhappiness in both Sarawak and Sabah appears real even if some of the demands being made lately seem unrealistic. Through all this brouhaha, though, one thing is very apparent. The time for federal half-measures, stalling or, worse, dismissing brewing popular sentiments in the two eastern states is over. It may exactly have been a combination of these that has brought on what we are witnessing now.
The battle waged by Sarawak with Petronas is almost emblematic.
The state’s demand for increased oil and gas royalty — expressed through an unanimous motion in the State Assembly — was almost completely ignored (at least publicly) by the national oil corporation and the Federal Government, conceding the public perceptions battle entirely to campaigners in the state. Belated public statements in reaction to the raging battle were viewed as haughty and too little, too late.
The Federal government will do well to launch a public education exercise in both Sarawak and Sabah by providing point-by-point answers to questions and issues raised as one way to give its side on the vastly important overall matter at hand. Failure to do so risks turning it into a completely one-sided battle for hearts and minds.
The general perception in Sarawak and Sabah is that both states have been short-changed in federation. Not addressing this head-on only tends to confirm it.
Moreover, the public furore generated allows the state authorities to tap into it and also to detract from and cover up the state’s own weaknesses and even failings in addressing legitimate popular grievances by channelling almost all blame to Putrajaya.
Sarawak Pakatan Harapan (PH), which is the opposition in the state, had been one with the state government in the call for a “fairer” deal from the Federal Government, now led by PH.
That potentially puts Sarawak PH in a bind. It must be seen to have gotten the state a better deal since it is now a part of the government federally. But doing so will also buttress the state government.
The writer views developments in the nation, the region and the wider world from his vantage point in Kuching, Sarawak