Lift entry ban on Sarawak Report editor, state govt urged
KUCHING: State Reform Party ( STAR) president Lina Soo urges Sarawak government to allow Sarawak Report editor Clare Rewcastle- Brown to visit the state.
“We welcome visitors to Sarawak and wish every guest a memorable stay as they are our ambassadors to promote Sarawak as the premier tourist destination after enjoying our unique Sarawak hospitality,” said Soo in a press statement yesterday.
Soo opined that entry ban is an old- school and the Sarawak government should not misuse the immigration autonomy for political purposes.
“That is not the image of a politically matured and democratic government that Sarawak should show to the world,” she added.
She also agreed with former soldier Fabian Wong in a recent Borneo Post report to seek the investigative skills of Clare to probe into the alleged failure of the British government to fulfil its trusteeship obligations to Sarawak following the formation of Malaysia in 1963. Echoing Wong, Soo urges Clare to look into the British failure in respect of the role played by the British in the formation of Malaysia at the expense of Sarawak.
“As Sarawak’s rights and territorial integrity were being transgressed over the loss of its political status to being one of the 13 states of the Federation, loss of its parliamentary veto power upon the departure of Singapore, loss of its rights over oil and gas in Sarawak, and loss of rights over Sarawak’s international waters to the Federal government, Soo said that Britain must fulfil its participative responsibility to ensure compliance of the Malaysia Agreement 1963.”
She argued that the British government is the architect and principal signatory to the Malaysia Agreement for the surrender of Sarawak sovereignty to the Federation of Malaysia in 1963, and Britain cannot remain silent bystander as Sarawak with its bountiful oil and gas reserves descends into being one of the poorest regions.
She, however, admitted that the British government did indeed put in ‘ safeguards and protections’ in the Malaysia Agreement, but it seemed many of these rights had been desecrated by the failure of the previous Federal government to honour them.
As Clare has declared her interest in Sarawak, Soo called on Clare to uncover the Malaysian government’s multiple breaches of Sarawak rights as had been set out in the Malaysia Agreement, and to seek to discover if this constitutes willful discontinuance of the International Treaty and if so, to advocate remedial action, in the course of justice for Sarawak.
Soo thus hoped that the Sarawak government will lift the entry ban on Clare soonest and allow her journey into Sarawak safely to enjoy the place she had lived in as a child.