SARWAKIANS have been urged to vote for change by opting for Pakatan Harapan (PH) instead of their homeland-based Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) during the 15th General Election (GE15) given that the latter’s coalition members were instrumental in agreeing to downgrade Sarawak from a “territory” to a “state” when the Malaysian Constitution was amended in 1976.
To prove his words right, retired DAP supremo Lim Kit Siang said the list of MPs who voted for and against the 1976 constitution amendment is after all available online on the Parliament website.
“Any visitor will find that those who supported the 1976 Constitution Amendment were the leaders of the present political parties in the GPS, and that it was the DAP MPs and I who opposed the Constitutional Speech Amendment,” he told a ceramah in Bau last night.
“On the way to Bau, I saw the GSP slogans calling on the voters to support GPS to ensure that Sarawak is ‘stable, prosperous and excellent’. This made me think of 1976 when the Malaysian Constitution was amended to downgrade Sarawak and Sabah from ‘territories’ to ‘states’.”
Unless there is absolute wind of change, the veteran lawmaker is fearful that Sarawak will never regain its status as a “territory” and would have continued to be treated as a “state”.
“The DAP fully agrees that Sarawak – in fact, Sabah and every state in Malaysia whether Penang, Perak, Selangor, Melaka or Johore should be ‘stable, prosperous and excellent – but this is not possible if Malaysia becomes a failed and rogue state, a kleptocracy and a kakistocracy,” the 81-year-old former opposition leader pointed out.
“This is what the GE15 is all about – Sarawak and Sabah and all states in Malaysia – to be ‘stable, prosperous and excellent’ which is impossible if Malaysia becomes a failed and rogue state like Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe.”
On this note, Kit Siang stressed that only the PH candidate for the 10th Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim is capable of leading Putrajaya to stop Malaysia’s global decline in politics, economics, education, health, culture and sports “so that Sarawak, Sabah and every state in Malaysia can be ‘stable, prosperous and excellent’.
“This is why I am calling on the voters of Sarawak to unite with the voters of Sabah and Peninsular Malaysia to have a high voter turnout and to ensure that we have a good government in Putrajaya so that (the entire) Malaysia (including Sarawak and Sabah) can be ‘stable, prosperous and excellent’,” he added. – Nov 9, 2022
