Vernon Kedit: Masing can do more than just criticising

By Vernon Aji Kedit,

Sarawak PKR Information Chief

 I read with a sense of amusement and disbelief today's headline in the Borneo Post screaming "Legality of nation at stake".

 Tan Sri James Jemut Masing, President of PRS, has outdone himself yet again for having the courage and grit to question the Election Commission and call for a reinstatement of the Malaysia Agreement of 1963 and I personally salute the man for his tenacity.

Vernon Kedit in one of  his rounds in Ulu Spak, Betong,meeting the people

The issue of fair representation in Parliament is an issue close to the hearts of all  Sarawakians on both sides of the political divide.

All Sarawakians want real autonomy and a restoration of the Malaysia Agreement 1963 and Sarawak PKR has gone the distance by pledging to uphold the Malaysia Agreement in our Kuching Declaration of 2012 while BN Sarawak has conversely, talked a lot recently about this but to date, nothing concrete has materialised.

Sarawak PKR  therefore supports  Masing his in call for the EC to not discount the MA1963, and we further call upon him to not just speak up loudly in the newspapers but to follow through with an immediate Bill to revisit and restore in full the Malaysia Agreement of 1963, to be tabled in Parliament by his six Members of Parliament, namely,  Masir Kujat (P.202 Sri Aman), William Nyallau Badak (P.203 Lubok Antu), Joseph Salang Gandum (P.209 Julau), Aaron Ago Dagang (P.210 Kanowit), Joseph Entulu Belaun (P.214 Selangau) and Wilson Ugak Kumbong (P.216 Hulu Rajang).

Speaking up loudly in the newspapers is just grandstanding and such posturing fools no one. The real place to speak up is in Parliament where it matters. Can Masing reassure us that he will instruct his six MPs to follow through with his newspaper rhetoric by tabling this significant Bill?

Masing could in fact take an even quicker route to seeing the restoration of the Malaysia Agreement 1963 by immediately pulling out of Barisan Nasional at both national and state levels and teaming up with Sarawak PKR to form a strong and viable Sarawak Alliance.

 Let us work together by combining our seats at both national and state level. Let us bark loudly together in Parliament and DUN where real change can be achieved, for the sake of Sarawak. Newspapers are not the right arena, a seasoned politician like Masing knows that only too very well.

Taking a real example from the ground, Masing should not speak with forked tongues by telling his men and women to campaign along the lines that PRS is an Opposition party and is "preparing umbrellas before it rains".

 This is what PRS is doing in Betong, and many other Iban areas to confuse the Iban electorate. Leave BN now,  Masing, if you really mean business, otherwise PRS would only be a vote spoiler to split PKR votes if you were to field independent candidates from PRS pretending to be Opposition friendly at the coming State Election.