KUCHING: The dropping of ‘State’ in Sarawak State Legislative Assembly (DUN) should be decided by Sarawak’s executive branch, said Tan Sri Datuk Amar Mohamad Asfia Awang Nassar.
The DUN speaker pointed out that in tandem with the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63), Sarawak is recognised as a region and not one of the 13 states in Malaysia.
“As a region, it is only logical and axiomatic that the word ‘negeri’ (State) be dropped. So, the State Legislature of Sarawak should be known as Dewan Undangan Sarawak instead because we are no longer a state but a region.
“Not to mention, if we were to use ‘Wilayah’, it would downgrade the status of Sarawak to that of the Territory of Labuan and the Federal Territory… I leave it to the executive (to decide on the amendment),” he said.
He said this during a press conference following the Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB) pre council meeting in conjunction with the DUN sitting at PBB headquarters here today.
Following this, Asfia said if the changes shall take place, he proposes that the member and speaker of the house shall be called Member of Dewan Sarawak and Speaker of Dewan Sarawak.
For the record, during a recent Hari Raya Aidilfitri open house hosted by DUN, Deputy Premier Datuk Amar Dr Sim Kui Hian pointed out that the venue was named ‘Dewan Undangan Sarawak’ instead of the commonly known ‘Dewan Undangan Negeri Sarawak’.
With the changes, he called on every Sarawakian to support this subtle but significant change.
He pointed out that even former prime minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin called Sarawak a region rather than ‘negeri’ (state) after the constitutional amendment.
“Let’s be consistent and start from ourselves not to call Sarawak ‘Negeri’, following Dewan Undangan Sarawak without the need for ‘Negeri’. So is (the term) Sarawak Government rather than Sarawak State Government,” he said.
