Get rid of colonial mentality, invoke Article VIII of MA63 – Soo

KUCHING: President of State Reform Party Sarawak (STAR), Lina Soo, has criticised former Sabah Chief Minister Tan Sri Harris Salleh, calling him a “product of colonial mentality”.

She was commenting on Harris’ call for Sabah leaders to stop fighting blindly for equal partnership status and to come up with clear details about what they were actually fighting for.

“Such mentality of political leaders is the root cause of the predicament Sarawak and Sabah face today, as the last 56 years have proven that the interests and rights of Sarawak and Sabah have been set aside in pursuance of the leaders’ own selfish interests.

“Unless such mentality is corrected, the future for Sarawak and Sabah will be bleak and a complete walk-over hands down,” she told The Borneo Post.

“The governments of both Sarawak and Sabah need to invoke Article VIII of the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63) to enforce executive and other means to implement the rights and safeguards contained in the IGC Report which the federal government has failed to fulfil,” she stressed.

Article VIII of MA63 states that the governments of the Federation of Malaya, North Borneo (now Sabah) and Sarawak will take such legislative, executive or other action as may be required to implement the assurances, undertakings and recommendations contained in Chapter 3 of, and Annexes A and B to, the Report of the Inter-Governmental Committee signed on February 27 1963, in so far as they are not implemented by express provision of the Constitution of Malaysia.

Lina insisted that this constitutional power lies within the state legislative assemblies of Sarawak and Sabah to invoke and implement as mandated in Article VIII of MA63.

“But first, the people of Sarawak and Sabah must awaken and realise that this constitutional power of the state governments has been overlooked for the past 56 years.

“They must use this constitutional and legal power bestowed upon the state governments to fix and correct all the injustices and grievances suffered by Sarawak and Sabah for the past 56 years,” she said.