DAP Caught Between The Devil and The Deep Blue Sea

YAB Abang Johari, the Chief minister of Sarawak expressed extreme disappointment at the Federal Government for cancelling three Major bridge projects in Sarawak, at the closing ceremony of Coastal Road Seminar in Kuching last week. These bridges, which include the Batang Lupar Bridge, the longest in Sarawak, will form important linkages within its coastal areas, thus ushering in the long awaited expressway transportation network in the state.

The Coastal Road and Expressway will definitely form the final, important and upgraded linkages within Sarawak after the completion of the Pan Borneo Highway, expected in the next few years.

The Coastal Road is fully funded by the Sarawak Government, after the Federal Government reneged on its earlier commitment to fund the three major bridge linkages.

Abang Jo’s disappointment is much felt by virtually all Sarawakians. In Parliament, YB Datuk Nancy Shukri conveyed this message very well when she warned the Federal Government not to assume Sarawakians as being stupid after cancelling the bridges project for reasons of lack of fund.

Lack of fund is not a credible reason, she argued, since these projects had been in the pipeline for ages and moreover funding issues should not take precedence over Sarawak’s rights as an important region in the country.

Such are the problems that opposition states like Kelantan and Terengganu have faced over the years. Sarawak and Sabah are facing it now and this points to the more reasons to fight for greater autonomy from Federal Government.

Apparently, DAP and PKR for that matter, are caught in this battle. PKR has been largely quite, but DAP has been more vocal to defend Federal Government actions.

However, to be fair to Tun Mahathir, it is quite a relief to see that some actions have been taken by his government to address the autonomy issue, notably the setting up of a special committee he chaired himself. This is a welcome development, but unfortunately the committee itself is lopsided in its representation which is largely from the federal government with only few representation from Sarawak and Sabah.

The bill to amend Article 1(2) of the Federal Constitution has just been tabled in Parliament. The proposed amendment is supposed to restore the position of Sarawak and Sabah as equal partners with Malaya.

But the proposed bill is already mired in controversy and a measure of distrust. Sabah and Sarawak MPs from GPS want to see that the bill be tabled after the Cabinet Streering Committee has completed its report. They wanted to see more substantive and meaningful amendment to the article of the Constitution.

To me this is an early indication that the fight to fully restore MA 63 and for autonomy is not a simple one. People need to understand that this is not an issue that can be solved over a two to three year period, and remember that in most countries that have faced similar situation it took them a long time to succeed. It involves sacrifices from its people and often with bloodshed. Let’s hope that Sarawak’s fight for autonomy will not come to that.

But sacrifices, it cannot be avoided; and remember that no one will hand over victory in silver platter. The people must be prepared to sacrifice.

As for the Sarawak’s MP’s from DAP and PKR, when such issues cropped up, all that they could utter was to blame the previous Barisan Nasional government in Sarawak. It may be understandable to blame BN for those past misdeed, but to continue blaming those culprits do not solve any problem. It does not bring any benefit to Sarawak and will not bring us anywhere. The situation is different now. The Sarawak government is now run by a different set of people who run Sarawak territory independent of Kuala Lumpur’s political interference.

Any movement for autonomy can only succeed if fought by the affected people themselves, without being subservient to anyone from outside. Abang Jo’s PBB and the other GPS component parties had taken the right step to leave the Malayan dominated BN

For a period of 50 years Sarawak had been subservient to the Central Government in Malaya, ever willing to give way to the greed and intrigues of KL. Unfortunately, Sarawak’s main player, the late Tun Rahman Ya’kub is no longer around to answer for it, or rather ‘fortunately’, he surrendered Sarawak Petroleum resources in an imperfect way to allow us to fight back on another day ( for the record the Sarawak’s petroleum rights were signed away without the approval of the state’s Legislative Assembly).

Only towards the end during the two years of Tok Nan’s rule that Sarawak BN began to summon courage to fight for its rights. He started to dig into the MA63 issues which had been buried deep into history.

Now, we are lucky to have Abang Jo as his successor who carried the fight further.

Circumstances had shown him the need for a more effective vehicle to fight. Hence the creation of GPS which is totally divorced from any political power in KL.

Sarawakians really do not have any choice, otherwise they will remain under the yoke of Malayan masters for a long long time to come. UMNO, DAP, PKR, PPBM and any other Malayan based party do not seem to fit easily into this Sarawak MA 63 scenario.

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DAH IKHWAN

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