By Dr Kelvin Yii
SUPP is either purposefully trying to mislead the public,
or they themselves do not know the procedures and practices of the Parliament
in Malaysia. Besides that, all they can do is try shift the blame to 'one man'
for their own failures to protect the interest of Sarawak in the first place.
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| Dr Kelvin Yii |
When YB Chong Chieng Jen challenged BN Sarawak to table
the motion to restore our rightful status, it is because if tabled by them it
will be then a government’s bill and take priority over all the proceeding in
Parliament.
If the opposition tables the bill, it will just be a
private members bill and in majority of the case it will not be given priority
and even given time for it to be debated in parliament.
With such an important matter at hand, it is important
that such debate takes priority in the proceedings and not be pushed down the
order or even not be debated at all.
This shows either SUPP does not understand the
proceedings or parliament or they and BN Sarawak are afraid to do so as they are only subservient
to UMNO and are now made to beg for our rights even though they could restore
right now if they wanted to do so.
On top of that, it was SUPP and all the component parties
in BN Sarawak that gave away our rights to the Federal government in the first
place.
When they willingly gave it without any objection in the
first place, then why would the federal government even give it back if BN
Sarawak as part of the ruling government, kept quiet and didn’t ask for it
back?
It is as if they don’t want our rights anymore and just
freely trade it away for their own self-interest.
They failed to protect our interest and betrayed the
State in the first place, but now keep trying to shift the blame of their
failure to one man, just because he is now part of the opposition.
They also keep blaming that "one man" and the
Federal government for the lack of development in the State when it is also
their failure and mismanagement of our Sarawak’s resources that caused us to be
left behind.
Fact of the matter is, Sarawak could just have easily
been developed through our own resources including our timber resources on top
of the federal spending. We are rich in
other resource besides oil and gas, and all those if managed properly could
have been used to development the State.
Billions and billions of ringgit were obtained from the
destruction of our tropical jungle, yet very little was spent on Sarawak's
development. The money went instead into the pockets of a minority few who are
or may be politically connected.
Even with the riches of our State’s resources including
timber, oil palm and other agricultural concessions, only a small elite in the
State have profited from our State’s resources.
Our wealth was not responsibly distributed not just for
development of the State, but also for the people who until now in many places
have no proper clean drinking water and being left to drink from rivers
polluted with oil palm, logging and unsafe factories.
We in Pakatan Harapan Sarawak are all Sarawakians, and
will fight for what is rightfully ours as well as voice out against injustice
and discrimination in our land.
How can we put our trust in so-called local political
parties when they were the ones that betrayed us all these while and kept
silent not only when there is inadequate federal funding to develop Sarawak,
but also remained silent or may have even profited from the unequal
distribution of our State resources?
Once Pakatan Harapan comes into power, we as Sarawakians
will not have to beg anymore for our rights of autonomy as we are determined to
in fully acknowledge our rightful status and standing in the federation.
We are not like Barisan Nasional, where all the other
component parties are subservient to UMNO. The leadership in Pakatan Harapan is
of consensus form each party and each promise is not just offered by "one
man", but the whole coalition and parties.
These so called local Barisan Nasional parties only know
how to shift the blame to "one man" for their own failures not just
to protect our interest in the Federal level, but also mismanaged our wealth
and properly distribute it on the State level.
Note:
Dr Kelvin is a special assistant to Sarawak DAP chairman Chong Chieng
Jen
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