KUCHING: Sarawak People’s Aspiration Party (Aspirasi) has asserted that Sarawak is not a “wilayah” (region) but a “negara” (nation), albeit a non-sovereign nation.
Its president Lina Soo, responding to Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin’s remark that Sarawak was a region, said “wilayah” is an Arabic word meaning to govern and under the Caliphate, “wilayah” meant any component state, controlled territory or administrative division.
She said in English, it referred to a controlled area or small state which is a component constituent of a country, while federal territories such as Kuala Lumpur and Labuan are “wilayah persekutuan”.
“Nation or negara is a Latin word meaning birth or place of birth. Nation is a political entity with a permanent border and a permanent population who share the same culture, history, language or ethnicity.
“Sarawak fulfils all these criteria and already existed as an independent sovereign nation well before the formation of the federation of Malaysia in 1963.
“Same as England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, which are four nations making up the United Kingdom — Sarawak, Sabah and the states of Malaya are three nations making up the Federation of Malaysia.”
She said former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, in a dialogue titled ‘Program Bicara dengan YAB Tun Dr Mahathir’ on Sept 18, 2018 publicly admitted that Sarawak and Sabah are two negara.
“While in the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63), in the annexed Constitution of State of Sabah, Article 1(i) stipulated that there shall be a Head of State for Sabah to be called the Yang di-Pertua Negara.
“This constitutional document is further acknowledgement that indeed Sabah and Sarawak are two nations upon the formation of the Federation of Malaysia.”
Soo said therefore, it was incorrect to call Sarawak a region, and this robbed Sarawak of its nationhood and territorial integrity.
“And merely amending Article 1(2) of the Federal Constitution serves no purpose if all other injustices suffered by Sarawak during 59 years of federalism are not addressed, specifically the unconstitutional takeover of Sarawak territorial waters, Sarawak oil and gas through the Territorial Sea Act 2012 and Petroleum Development Act 1974 respectively.
“It would be foolhardy to think Sarawak will automatically become an equal partner if all other federal laws, which had robbed Sarawak of our taxes, petroleum resources and territorial integrity, were not addressed.
“Therefore, the Article 1(2) debate is merely a smokescreen to keep the people of Sarawak naive and ignorant for the federal government to continue its domination and exploitation of Sarawak resources.”
She hoped that the Sarawak government would declare its stand on the definition of Sarawak as a region.
