Lack of action after London visit over Sarawak’s rights questioned

DAP leader asks if London trip to gather evidence in the fight for Sarawak autonomy was a waste of money, adding the real issue is whether the federal government is willing to accede to the state’s requests based on the Malaysia Agreement.

KUCHING: An opposition leader is puzzled over the silence of the state government on the status of its fight for Sarawak’s rights under the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63), three months after a legal team was sent to London to get evidence.

State DAP chairman Chong Chieng Jen asked if the state government had wasted money on sending 10 individuals to London to look for documents leading to the formation of Malaysia.

“All the hoo-haa about going to London has added no extra edge to Sarawak’s fight for autonomy except extra holidays for those involved at the expense of the tax payers’ money.

“Nothing has come up from the whole thing except for the technical committee,” The Borneo Post quoted Chong as telling a press conference here.

Saying all documents leading to the formation of Malaysia were no longer classified under the Official Secrets Act, Chong added it did not serve any purpose for the state government to be ‘so secretive’ about the documents they had collected from London. 

He said he had in his possession a book, British Documents on the End of Empire, published by the Institute of Commonwealth Studies of the University of London, whose content included 227 correspondences leading to the formation of Malaysia from the time of Lord Cobbold to prime minister Harold McMillan of Britain, to Tunku Abdul Rahman and even to Lee Kuan Yew.

The Borneo Post quoted him as saying: “The book contains all the correspondences, including telegram exchanges that ultimately led to the formation of Malaysia.”

The Bandar Kuching MP and Kota Sentosa assemblyman said he had “got the book at no cost at all”.

“So, my question to Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg is: ‘what is the big hassle in spending hundreds of thousands of tax payers money to bring all his legal officers to London for a tour to obtain some documents which you can easily obtain from the Institute of Commonwealth Studies in the University of London?’”

Chong said he had gone through all the documents and they were historical documents which added “no additional knowledge to the fight for Sarawak’s autonomy”.

He reiterated that the fight for autonomy for Sarawak rested solely on the political strength and willingness of the federal government to accede to the state’s demand “and not about some correspondence that led to the signing of the Malaysia Agreement”.

He said the terms stated in the MA63, provisions stated in the Federal Constitution, the stand of the Sarawak government and the willingness of the federal government to devolve certain powers to the state were what mattered, according to The Borneo Post report. -FMT