Tiang: looking at New Deal Agreement by PakatanHarapan (PH)

suppadmin | April 10, 2018

Michael Tiang, the Youth Central Chairman of Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP) said the proposal of New Deal Agreement by PakatanHarapan (PH) to Sarawak BN has once again proven that it is important to build a Stronger Sarawak. Since last December during its Triennial Delegates Conference, SUPP had launched its General Election campaign theme: “Stronger Sarawak”. SUPP’s said notion emphasizes that Sarawak must become stronger and financially independent in order to further reinforce its special consititutional position and its status as one of the four founding partners to the formation of Malaysia in 1963.

Apparently under the recent aggressive pursues of reclaiming rights under the Malaysia Agreement 1963(MA63) by the Sarawak BN government, Sarawak has since gained back many of its rights as provided under MA63 through devolution of powers as well as further cemented its indispensable status as “the fixed deposit state” to Putrajaya after the State Election in 2016.

“Therefore I won’t be surprised that even the opposition alliance has to acknowledge the fact that Sarawak’s autonomous position in Malaysia is not to be taken lightly,” said Tiang who is also a political secretary to the Chief Minister of Sarawak. “This is new, as in the past this was never offered or considered by BarisanAlternatif or Pakatan Rakyat. Moreover, in the recent unveiled BarisanNasional Manifesto by Datuk Seri NajibRazak, it was also the first time the BN reserves a full chapter of its Manifesto to empower and prosper Sarawak by giving back rights and allocation of funds to close the gaps of development between Sarawak and Peninsula. This shows that when you’re strong and have autonomous powers, you’ll be approached by all parties with great respect and deals,” said Tiang.

It is therefore very important for all Sarawakians to see this political reality and needs to support Sarawak BN to win in all 31 seats in the coming General Election to make a very loud statement that (1) the people of Sarawak are united in supporting the Sarawak BN under the leadership of our Chief Minister DatukPatinggiAbangZohariTunOpeng to safeguard Sarawak rights; and (2) the winning of all 31 seats signifying that Sarawak are serious about getting back all the rights and powers belong to Sarawak according to the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63) without any compromise.

However the so-called New Deal as proposed by PH are bad deals for Sarawak. On one hand, PH pretends to honour Sarawak as a founding partner to the formation of Malaysia by promising to revert our position to one of the three founding partner state if they become the Federal Government. But their insincerity was immediately exposed in their mentions on Sarawak’s rights on oil and gas in the New Deal Agreement. They still perceive our PETROS as a contractor company, not a Sarawakian sovereign company that has both ownership and regulatory powers over oil and gas within Sarawak territory. The PH even continue to suggest a mere 20% oil royalty for Sarawak and also to form another oil company to share the oil and gas regulatory powers together with Petronas which is a total reverse to Sarawak government’s agenda to exercise our 100 per cent rights over our oil and gas within our territory. Therefore just on this point, PH has already failed to respect and acknowledge Sarawak’s territorial integrity, let alone to honour whatever is promised in the New Deal Agreement.