31 AUGUST: SARAWAKIANS MUST HAVE ACCEPTED THE MESSAGE

August 31 was supposed to be the Malaysia’s National Day to mark the independence of our country and Malaysians throughout the country have been celebrating it unquestionably for the last fifty over years.

At the heights of the national fervour one would witness the national and state flags flying in every nook and corner of the country be it on government buildings, business premises, residential buildings, lining up the streets or paraded by the gleeful Malaysians on cars, motorcycles, bicycles and any form of transportation, except perhaps on aeroplanes or helicopters.

Early morning on August 31, I took my kid for a short spin around Kuching city just to have a feel of the celebration in Sarawak. Kuching is not the celebration centre this year but still one would have expected at least something of a celebration.

Around the city everything was quite. There are no obvious form of celebration except at school premises where rows of the Malaysian and Sarawak flags fly lining up the school perimeter, with some on the school buildings. Elsewhere there was no sign of festivity. Those flag flying joys at the usual places are nowhere to be seen. I couldn’t even spot a car or motorcycle parading the flags. It is as though Sarawakians have just awaken to the fact that August 31 is not for them to celebrate.

Absence of any semblance of celebration in Sarawak capital city should not be mistaken as a sign of lack of loyalty to the country. It is actually more of a reflection of Sarawak’s recent stance towards the relevant dates to celebrate. Just less than a month earier on 22 July Sarawakians celebrated The Sarawak Day and in just a few weeks ahead, it will be Malaysia Day. So, it may be too many celebrations within a short span of only two months.

As a teenage boy at the time of independence in 1963, I can still vividly recall the events leading to the birth of Malaysia. It was planned to be on 31 August 1963, at the time when Sarawak was still engulfed in serious security issues. The Brunei rebellion which spilled over into Limbang, Lawas and parts of Miri Division had just abated, while communist insurgency was still rising. Nevertheless, these were not the cause of delay in the formation of Malaysia – the real culprit was the Indonesian Confrontation launched by Sukarno, the country’s President at that time, in opposition to birth of our nation.

Indonesia actually staged incursions into Sarawak and Malaya, but these failed. In fact most of the Indonesian soldiers were captured, including those who had dropped by parachutes into Labis, Johore.

In the meantime negotiations went on between Malaya, the British colonial rulers of Sarawak and Sabah and Indonesia. It was not a fruitful negotiation; the national day was delayed to 16 September, 1963. How and why Malaysia continued to celebrate 31 August as its National Day is not based on historical fact, but reflects more of the wish and decision of the Big Brother Malaya, which indeed won her Merdeka on 31 August, though a few years earlier in 1957.

In about two weeks time we will be celebrating Malaysia Day, which is the day that Sarawakians and all Malaysians should celebrate. It Marked the actual birth of our nation and it gave mountain of hopes to our forefathers and us who lived at that time. During these years since then, we Sarawakians made some measure of progress. Income has increased, infrastructure have improved, education and health services have progressed.

However, contributions and sacrifices Sarawakian made have been tremendous. Our resources, in particular oil and gas, have been taken over by the Federal Government and its revenue siphoned to finance huge portions of its annual expenditure in the country. Sarawak along with other producing states have only received a small fraction of it. Hence, it is no surprise that, though rich in resources, Sarawak remains among the poorest in the country, all these years helping to enrich Malaya at our own expense.

The future of the country does not give much promise. Other East Asian countries like Korea, Taiwan and China have long overtaken us, and other ASEAN countries like Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia are starting to overtake us economically.

Perhaps this is the inevitable consequence of too much sin committed by the Federal Government; sin of unfair distribution of resources, indiscriminate and wasteful spendings, thus promoting complacency and laziness in the country. Most of the population, especially Malayan Malays need not strive to live – the Federal Government has always been a ready Santa Clause to distribute goodies or provide employment financed by Petroleum money. So, where is the need for GST? Poor Najib, you tried to help through GST, but they shot you down. Strangely, some Sarawakian even helped in this ugly process.

The happenings in Malaya is now a major source for worry. There is no more mention of rukun negara, there is no more pride in unity in diversity and, instead it is sectarian politic of religious and racial hatred. In fact, it has been the past extreme policies of the Government there that nurtured the current unhealthy atmosphere. The Malays always wanted disproportionate share of the pie, the Chinese are only keen to fight for Chinese interest irrespective of how it affects the nation, and the poor Indians are caught in between.

Let us all Sarawakians keep a distance from these sectarian politics, let us strengthen our very own Sarawak Dominant culture of progress, always bearing in mind of our multicultural make up. Let us work towards this goal, and remember that only Sarawakian leaders, headed by YAB Abang Jo the Chief Minister, and only we ourselves can help Sarawak to achieve it . Let us be the model for the rest of Malaysia. Even now many Malayan leaders have voiced out similar hope. END.

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DAH IKHWAN