Michael Tiang
SIBU: Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP) Youth chief Michael Tiang hopes the federal cabinet will affirm the decision to refer Sarawak as a ‘region’ instead of a state.
He also suggested that the Federal Constitution be amended to incorporate Sabah and Sarawak as regions and not states.
“I fully support the views expressed earlier by Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture Datuk Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah that by merely referring Sarawak as a region was insufficient.
“More importantly, the Federal Constitution must be amended to incorporate Sabah and Sarawak as regions and not states.
“With their status of regions, the constitutional amendments must also define expressly the special status and rights of Sabah and Sarawak to important matters like the sharing of national wealth parliamentary representative so as to differentiate Sarawak from other states in Malaya,” Tiang, who is a political secretary to chief minister, said in a statement yesterday.
“I would appreciate it if the federal cabinet would make a decision to refer Sarawak as a ‘region’ instead of a state,” he added.
He said any decisions to refer Sarawak as a ‘region’ should not be viewed as an exercise to upgrade the status of Sarawak in the Federation of Malaysia but a rightful restoration of Sarawak’s original status as one of the founding partners of the Federation of Malaysia in 1963.
He added that Sarawak did not join the federation of Malaya in 1963 to form Malaysia but Sarawak was forming Malaysia together with North Borneo, Malaya and Singapore as a region, which should not in any way be equated with states in the Peninsula.
Additionally, he noted that many politicians were out there to attempt to confuse the public by comparing ‘Wilayah’ Sarawak with the three federal territories (Wilayah Persekutuan).
“The three ‘wilayah persekutuan’ were created and gazetted as special zones for administrative and off shore port purposes directly governed by the federal government while Sarawak is a region, not one of the 13 states, entitled to special rights and autonomy in governance, immigration, oil and gas, land and many other aspects,” Tiang said.