SARAWAKIANS are bemused by Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s promise last night to accord equal status to Sabah and Sarawak after the study on the Malaysia Agreement 1963 is done.

“What study again?” Deputy Chief Minister James Masing asked.

“This so-called study, by Tun M (Mahathir), is just a decoy to delay the process (of returning the eroded rights and autonomy enshrined in the agreement),” the third most senior minister in the Sarawak cabinet said.

“Sabah and Sarawak shouldn’t be fooled yet again.”

He said 55 years of being “blindfolded” was more than enough.

Masing said there was no necessity for another study on MA63, which established the formation of Malaysia as a federation, as it was a United Nations chartered agreement (which could not be altered or amended by the federal constitution or parliament).

He said all Putrajaya has to do is to get the remaining three signatories of the agreement – Peninsular Malaysia (then known as Malaya), Sarawak and Sabah – to conduct an audit on the agreement.

“Let the three signatories do the audit as to whether there has been any breach of the understanding of MA63.

“If there is any, then the three signatories will decide whether it is serious enough to nullify the agreement.”

The other two of the five signatories are Singapore and the United Kingdom.

Singapore withdrew from the federation on August 9, 1965 following political and economic differences between the ruling parties of Singapore and Malaysia while the UK is still party to the agreement.

The same question was also posed by rights lawyer Dominique Ng.

“Do we still need to study what the MA63 is all about after 55 years?” asked Ng who was PKR’s first assemblyman in the Sarawak legislature.

“What were they (Pakatan Harapan) doing when they came up with their election manifesto prior to the GE14?” he asked.

Ng also agreed with Masing that the study was just another delaying tactic by Putrajaya, adding that the prime minister’s latest announcement was just to buy time for the government.

“That will give them another six months, if not more. And then they will come up with another excuse until the Sarawak state elections!

“He’s just trying to buy time. There is no sincere intention to give our rights back at all.

“It is clear now to many, if not all, that the PH government under Dr Mahathir will not willingly give up what they have been plundering from Sarawak all those four long decades.

“The billions (of ringgit) which they now admit they took from Sarawak if they were to be returned, even if just a 20% oil royalty, would force Petronas to close shop,” Ng said, in reference to Economics Minister Azmin Ali’s claim that the national oil company would go bankrupt if the federal government accedes to the demand of the oil producing states for a 15 percentage point increase of the royalty from the current 5% .

“It will not be given,” he said.

Ng also said Dr Mahathir could not continue to push the blame on the old Barisan Nasional government for the erosion of the rights.

Dr Mahathir had last night said “the new Malaysia under the Pakatan Harapan government realised the erosion of Sabah and Sarawak’s status and rights under the previous Barisan Nasional administration, becoming additional two states in the federation of Malaysia instead of being equal partners”.

“He and many people (former BN leaders now in PH) seem to suffer from mass amnesia. He was the prime minister of a BN government for 22 years and it was during his time as prime minister (from 1981 to 2003) that many anti-Sarawak policies were planned and implemented,” Ng said.

Prominent state rights advocate Lina Soo also asked “what is there to study about an international treaty which was written and signed 55 years ago?”

Soo said if there was a need to study further the agreement, then it could only be done “with all five signatory nations sitting down at one table again”.

The promise Dr Mahathir made last night “is definitely not sincere”.

Soo, whose human rights group Sarawak Association for Peoples’ Aspiration (Sapa) was once banned by the previous BN government, said it’s incredibly ridiculous to suggest that Dr Mahathir, who ruled Malaysia longer than any other prime minister, had no idea of what he should do for Sarawak and Sabah.

“If he doesn’t know the needs and expectations of Sarawak and Sabah, was he ruling only for Malaya in the first 22 years of his rule?

“He is just making one more political promise which doesn’t need to be fulfilled, to fool the Sarawak and Sabah people.

“I’m not taken in by more fake promises. Mere talk from a government that had admitted that political promises are not significant and (the manifesto) is not the Bible.

She said Sarawakians would no longer continue to be distracted by mere empty talk and fake promises.

On her Facebook page, Soo posted: “Enough of lies, there is no need to study how to restore Sarawak (and) Sabah’s status, can be done immediately in Parliament”.

Chan Chee Hiong of the rights group Sarawak for Sarawakians (S4S) also agreed that there was no necessity to review the MA63.

“Just fulfil it (according to the agreed terms),” he said.

“What else do you need to review? The review is simply an excuse. At the end of the review, Sarawak still has nothing.” – September 17, 2018.