DO not make the mistake of having Dr Mahathir Mohamad as prime minister twice, said Sarawak Deputy Chief Minister James Jemut Masing in warning the state’s residents not to vote for Pakatan Harapan.

In his speech following Chief Minister Abang Johari Openg’s address, thanking Governor Abdul Taib Mahmud for the latter’s address to commemorate the 150th year of the state legislative assembly, Masing said Sarawak folk would be making a mistake by voting for PH.

He said if Dr Mahathir became prime minister again, the state’s request for full compliance with the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63) and the return of lost rights would not be met.

He said if such requests had been made during Dr Mahathir’s time in office, they would have been “viewed with disdain, hostility, treated as preposterous and high-handedly dismissed”.

He said he was confident that the government under Prime Minister Najib Razak would honour MA63.

The 93-year-old Dr Mahathir was prime minister from 1981 to 2003, and has been declared as PH’s prime minister designate should the pact win the 14th general election.

“Therefore, it would be to Sarawak’s benefit for Najib to continue as prime minister. He is the first top Malaysian leader to listen to our requests, and take Sarawak’s needs and interests into consideration when making decisions,” said Masing.

He added that Najib was the first prime minister to promise to listen to Sarawak’s claims.

“We have faith that he will do what is required. It is, therefore, to the benefit of the assemblymen on both sides of the House, and the people of Sarawak, for Barisan Nasional to win GE14 and for Najib to remain as prime minister, so that he can finish up his unfinished business.

“As for the prime minister candidate chosen by the opposition, it would be a disaster for Sarawak.”

He said the erosion of the state’s rights over time had threatened the people’s dignity.

He said unless current Sarawak leaders “are daring enough to right the wrongs that have been done unto us, we will go down in history as leaders who have forgotten how hard our forefathers had negotiated for Sarawak, and leave our future generations defenceless, and maybe, penniless”.

Abang Johari, in his address earlier, reiterated that the rights of Sarawak were “sacred to all Sarawakians”.

“It is unquestionable that we should naturally wish to defend the rights of our own state.”

He told the assembly that in the Inter-Governmental Committee Report that was annexed to MA63, “it was agreed that Sarawak can take whatever actions – be they legislative, administrative or executive – to fully implement those recommendations to safeguard the special interests of Sarawak, which have not already been incorporated in the federal constitution after Malaysia Day”.

He said even though the state government had, on January 15, signed a term sheet with Petronas on the purchase of a 10% equity stake in the national petroleum company’s Malaysia Liquefied Natural Gas (MLNG) Plant Train 9, it was also working with the firm “for a larger equity in the MLNG 3 plant”.

He said Sarawak’s equity in MLNG projects “is our privilege, which is exclusive to us”. – January 30, 2018.