Nothing to negotiate on MA63, just execute it, insists Aspirasi’s Soo

Lina Soo

KUCHING (Dec 23): There is nothing to negotiate about the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63) when all it requires is for the Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) administration to ask for execution and compliance from the federal government, said Sarawak People’s Aspiration Party (Asipirasi) president Lina Soo.

“There is nothing to fight for, because everything is written down in black and white in the Malaysia Agreement in 1963.

“All these MA63 committees and endless discussions are meaningless when the governments have no political will. The Sarawak government is also secretive and refuses to allow the people of Sarawak to know what is going on, under the pretext of the Official Secrets Act,” she said in a statement yesterday.

Soo maintained that she is not impressed with the amendment to Article 1(2) just passed in Parliament where Sarawak and Sabah have become ‘Negeri-Negeri Borneo’ with state status, like the ‘Negeri-Negeri Tanah Melayu’.

“In Bahasa Malaysia, the wording should be Negara-Negara Borneo, not Negeri, which has actually locked Sarawak in as a Negeri in the Federation of Malaysia.

“Sarawak is one of three Nations in the federation of Malaysia and this fact has been obscured by the word Negeri,” she said.

On Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Abang Johari Tun Openg’s recent statement that fighting for Sarawak rights under MA63 does not mean working to leave the federation, Soo reminded him that the recently concluded Sarawak election had revealed that there is a proportion of the population who actually voted for separation from the federation.

“Their voice was articulated by the 43,803 votes which is 5.7 per cent of total votes of 759,627 cast, which means more than 43,000 Sarawakians are turning their backs on the MA63 and are seriously thinking about going alone, like Singapore did in 1965. This small group cannot be ignored,” she said, while accepting the verdict of the people in this election and stating that Aspirasi is here to stay.

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