Faith is the bird that feels the light when the dawn is still dark.
– Rabindranath Tagore, Indian poet
Just this week, newly appointed federal ministers from Sarawak paid a courtesy call on Premier Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Abang Johari Tun Openg.
This was revealed by Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof who spoke to reporters shortly after arriving in Kuching.
The purpose of the visit was to seek guidance on the approaches of Sarawak representatives in the Cabinet on how best to assist the state from Putrajaya.
The newly appointed Cabinet comprised five full ministers from Sarawak, one of which is a deputy prime minister.
Fadillah, the Petra Jaya MP, made history by being the first East Malaysian to be appointed to the nation’s second highest post in government for the first time in 59 years.
It is my belief that this was exactly what Malaysia’s founding fathers envisioned when it set about to form Malaysia – a federation that comprised Malaya, Sarawak, Sabah and Singapore.
This was power sharing in its simplest and purest form – and it took half a century for us get here.
Why was this so? The simple answer could be that the leadership of yesteryear while Sarawak was represented by Barisan Nasional (BN) only viewed Sarawak in numerical terms.
We were what they would describe as “safe deposit” along with Sabah, whereby the people are united and crave development, in some way, BN has delivered that.
But in political terms, with this sense of security, comes complacency whereby the political aspirations of Sarawakians were never fulfilled.
BN was in Sarawak and Sabah. While the component parties in Sarawak are different that of in other parts of Malaysia, it was one BN.
The fulfilment of this power sharing aspiration was realised by quitting the coalition and forming Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) – there we were not viewed as numbers, but rather, partners that together form a government.
Fadillah as Deputy Prime Minister has been tasked with seeing to it that matters that are still unresolved in regards to Sarawak and Sabah rights under Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63) are fulfilled.
Essentially, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim is putting his full trust on a Sarawakian to facilitate the return of eroded rights for the Borneo states.
That puts Sarawak in the driving seat to chart the future of both itself and Sabah in the federation.
It is definitely an honour to be given such a task to handle matters that are close to the heart of East Malaysians.
That is why the meeting with the Premier by the Sarawak federal ministers is crucial.
Sarawak has been right all along in terms of its approaches towards facilitating the return of state rights through the process of negotiations and diplomacy.
The vision for Sarawak now is that rights that are returned to the state means economic returns through a bigger share of revenue generated by Malaysia to Sarawak.
This is what Sabah also wants – in times of which there is lack of clarity and direction from the leaders of Sabah, they turn to their partner in Sarawak to lead the way.
Abang Johari throughout his reign as Chief Minister and now Premier has set the path for Sarawak to become a developed and high-income state.
It is time that this vision and foresight is shared with the rest of Malaysia. In his own words, it is time that it rises above itself and becomes a region of which Malaysia as a whole can draw examples from.
To an extent, this has been achieved. We have been successful through our prowess in digital technology adoption and also our successes in the exploration as well as development of new energy sources.
A stronger Malaysia that is economically resilient and politically stable is what the people of this nation has been hoping for.
As Sarawakians, we have been fortunate to be benefitting from our stable politics as well as our successes in our economy.
In some way, the federal government under Anwar must take a page from the Abang Johari playbook.
Of course, it could not be adopted as is, there has to be changes to properly accommodate the bigger segment of the community and the economy, but it can be done.
It is therefore fitting that Anwar has put his belief in Sarawak tobring prosperity to the Borneo states through restoration of its eroded rights.
It is high time that this belief is enhanced, and wisdom from the East Malaysian state is utilised for the betterment of Malaysia as a whole.
The views expressed here are those of the columnist and do not necessarily represent the views of New Sarawak Tribune.
