TOO MUCH BULLYING, TOO MUCH RAPING – WHY SABAH, SARAWAK DON’T SEE ‘BIG PICTURE OF MALAYSIA’

SARAWAK and Sabah rights activists pushing for greater autonomy from Putrajaya said they can’t be expected to “think about the big picture of Malaysia” as advised by Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad because of the unjust and unequal treatment towards their states.

The right to autonomy in various areas under the Malaysia Agreement 1963 has not been fully honoured and is the root cause why Sarawakians and Sabahans are seen as “parochial”, said indigenous people’s rights activist Mark Bujang.

It explains slogans than have become popular in these states in recent years, such as “Sarawak for Sarawakians” and “Sabah for Sabahans”, he said.

“Were we accorded equal status (as partners forming Malaysia) as what was agreed in the MA63? What about our rights to our petroleum, (to determine our) education and labour, to name a few?” he told The Malaysian Insight.

Bujang, who is executive director of civil society organisation Borneo Resources Institute, said the failure by Putrajaya over the years to honour MA63, and to even erode certain rights, have “clouded Sarawakians’ view of the big picture”.

Bujang was reacting to Dr Mahathir’s call recently for Malaysians to think of the big picture, “instead of narrowing their thinking to their respective individual territories”.

The prime minister was commenting on concerns by Sabah and Sarawak that they were not consulted on certain major policies, such as a revision of the departure levy and the teaching of khat calligraphy to year four vernacular schoolchildren.

He also said talking about “Sabah for Sabahans” and “Sarawak for Sarawakians” was “not healthy”.

“We may live in Sabah or Sarawak or the peninsula but we are Malaysians,” he was quoted as saying.

Rungus women marking the International Day of the World Indigenous People recently. It’s difficult to think of being Malaysians first when peninsula-based leaders talk about ‘Tanah Melayu’ and being Malays first, say Sabah and Sarawak leadres. – The Malaysian Insight pic by Irwan Majid, August 22, 2019.

Bujang said Sarawakians should not be blamed for their parochialism just because of recent policies but over long-standing issues such as “creeping Islamisation” and attempts to convert native children at boarding schools to Islam.

Bujang also pointed out the failure to implement the Borneonisation of the federal civil service, whereby more civil service positions ought to be filled by locals instead of hiring staff from the peninsula.

Pakatan Harapan, which took federal power last year, has so far not shown much difference about respecting these concerns, and he cited the controversy over khat and the protection given to controversial Indian preacher Dr Zakir Naik.

“We are still bickering about race and religion in politics,” he said.

Michael Peter Govind of the Sabah Institute Development of Studies said parochial sentiments in both states were heightened after 56 years since the formation of Malaysia, as basics such as electricity in rural areas still haven’t been implemented.

“Sabah is resource rich yet we are 20 years behind Malaya in development. There’s not even street lighting all the way to Papar,”  Govind said, adding that all Sabahans would notice such things.

Stronger calls for autonomy are due to greater awareness among people about the state’s rights, he said.

“This means more Sabahans are becoming aware of their rights. This is important as more people realise the big misallocation of development between Malaya and the Borneo states.”

Sabah political analyst Tony Paridi Bagang said the “Sabah for Sabahans” slogan had been around for years but it was becoming popular again as people grow dissatisfied with the federal government.

“Sabahans are putting high hopes on all the promises in the MA63 to be fulfilled,” Universiti Institut Teknologi Mara political science lecturer said.

Instead of a brighter future upon forming Malaysia, Sabah has actually lagged behind, its poverty rate rising to become the poorest state in the country. This is despite its natural resources, particularly oil and gas, for which the federal government has been paying just 5% in royalty each year.

Both Sabah and Sarawak have been asking Putrajaya to increase the royalty payment to 20%.

Peter John Jaban, an activist with the Sarawak Association for Peoples’ Aspiration (Sapa) said folk from the two states may not even think of themselves as Malaysians first.

“How do you expect us to think that we are Malaysian if we are not being treated fairly?”

As long as Peninsular Malaysia has public figures who issued divisive statements about race and Malay dominance, Sabah and Sarawakians would never be able to see the “big picture” Dr Mahathir talked about, Jaban said.

He specifically mentioned Perlis mufti Mohd Asri Zainul Abidin, who frequently speaks about Malaysia’s identity being Malay and Malays as the land owners.

“Our Sarawak forefathers, when they agreed to form Malaysia, agreed that the Malaysia to be formed is not a Malaysia for the Malays,” said Jaban, who is Sapa information and publicity chief.

“Tanah Melayu for the Malays? Perhaps, but not the whole of Malaysia,” said 40-year-old Sabahan Maurice Julius.

To Sarawak politician and state rights activist Lina Soo, Dr Mahathir and leaders from the peninsula should not blame Sarawakians for focusing on the state’s interests first and foremost, as they had been shaped to think this way by the federal government over the years.

“Why blame Sarawakians for having the ‘Sarawak mentality’ when you created it. We are the victims of Malaya’s divisive, religious politics,” said Soo, who is president of the State Reform Party (Star).

She said Sarawakians felt this way because they have been conditioned under policies that were race-based.

“There is little sense of shared duty and destiny.”

– https://www.themalaysianinsight.com/