CALLING it play-acting, Sarawak opposition leaders and activists fighting for greater state autonomy have slammed Kuching’s move to send a legal team to London on the Malaysia Agreement as a fruitless venture. 

Chief Minister Abang Johari Openg said the team, which would be led by Assistant Law, Federal-State Relations and Project Monitoring Minister Sharifah Hasidah Sayeed Aman Ghazali, will research details on the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63), which would help the government negotiate for devolution of federal powers.

Opposition lawmakers, however, have ridiculed the announcement, saying it is merely a ploy to appease Sarawakians who are increasingly agitated by what they see as an erosion of their rights by Putrajaya.

“It seems that Barisan Nasional has started an annual pilgrimage to the UK in the name of fighting for autonomy,” Sarawak DAP leader Chong Chieng Jen said, referring to Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP) president Dr Sim Kui Hian’s announcement on July 15 last year that the party had sent a special committee to the UK to research material on MA63.

“To many Sarawakians who understand the workings of government, this is just play-acting by the government of the day to try to fool the people (into believing) that they are serious about fighting for autonomy for Sarawak,” said the Bandar Kuching MP.

DAP’s Bukit Assek assemblyman Irene Chang said a true measure of the government’s sincerity in fighting for Sarawak’s rights was in ensuring that state lawmakers stand their ground in Parliament when it came to bills and legislation not beneficial to the state.

Chang said Sarawakian MPs must stand up against the government in demanding what was rightfully the state’s when it came to issues, such as an increase in oil royalty, education autonomy and others.

“GE14 is at the doorstep. When is the better time to flex our muscles and show that we mean business, than by claiming back our rights. Speak through the parliamentary seats which we have in our hands rather than playing at rhetoric all the time,” said Chang.

Last year, SUPP formed a special committee called the “Sarawak autonomy and devolution of powers” headed by SUPP Vice-President Lee Kim Shin and included lawyers and historians. 

The committee conducted a study on the Malaysia Agreement 1963, the Inter-Governmental Committee (IGC) Report, the Cobbold Commission Report and other relevant provisions in the Federal Constitution. 

Sim told reporters last year that the committee had also recently obtained declassified documents from the British national archives, including the document recording the terms for the granting of self-government status to Sarawak, dated July 22, 1963.

DAP’s Chong, a lawyer by profession, said the SUPP team claimed to have handed over the original documents to (the late chief minister) Adenan Satem to fight for autonomy for Sarawak.

However, the party has since been silent on the outcome of that effort.

“If they have already gotten the original documents, what would the legal team, led by Abang Johari, find today?

“This immediately raises questions on what has SUPP brought back from the archive of the UK government. What have they done to all the historical documents that they have brought back? Chong asked. 

Pro-autonomy advocacy group Sarawak For Sarawakians (S4S) spokesman Peter John Jaban said he hoped the sending of a legal team to the UK was not merely a show put on ahead of the elections.

“Sarawakians cannot afford to be blindsided once more as what has happened in the past many times,” said Peter.

“It is hoped that the numerous political parties do not politicise this important effort taken by the state government in ensuring that the points of MA63 is abided to. 

“Sarawakians are only worried  this could be just a ploy to win the heart of voters seeing that the  general election is right around the corner.” – July 3, 2017.