DAP questions SUPP on its ‘valuable, confidential’ MA63 documents

KUCHING: What is the legal team announced by the Chief Minister going to study in London when Sarawak United Peoples’ Party (SUPP) president Datuk Dr Sim Kui Hian said the party had brought back ‘valuable and confidential documents’ with regards to the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63) from the United Kingdom in July last year?

State DAP chairman Chong Chieng Jen, who asked this yesterday, quoted a news report dated July 15, 2016 as saying that SUPP had brought back pertinent documents on MA63 and would hand them over to then Chief Minister, the late Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Adenan Satem, to fight for Sarawak’s rights?

“If SUPP has brought back the original documents from the UK archives system in London, (then) what is the legal team led by (Assistant Law State-Federal Relations and Project Monitoring Minister) Sharifah Hasidah going to find in London?” he questioned at a news conference at DAP headquarters here.

With him at the conference were Stampin MP Julian Tan and Pending assemblywoman Violet Yong.

Chong, also Bandar Kuching MP and Kota Sentosa assemblyman, wondered what valuable documents SUPP had brought back from the UK last year that Chief Minister Datuk Amar Abang Johari Tun Openg still had to send a team of lawyers to London.

“Did SUPP lie about bringing back valuable and confidential documents? Perhaps SUPP brought back unimportant documents?

“If indeed SUPP had brought back the original documents, I urge Abang Johari to send his legal team to SUPP headquarters at Jalan Ong Kee Hui instead of London to study them,” quipped Chong.

The DAP lawmaker felt that Abang Johari should look into the matter of SUPP’s supposed MA63 documents before spending a huge budget on sending the legal team to London.

“Bear in mind that when the legal team departs for the UK, it is going to cost a lot because they will be flying business class and staying at four or fivestar hotel,” he added.

He said the government “is plain acting and trying to fool the people that they are serious about fighting for autonomy of Sarawak.”

He added that he had had enough of the ‘annual pilgrimage to London in the name of fighting for Sarawak’s autonomy’.

Chong asserted that the state Barisan Nasional (BN) ought to use its pivotal position to fight for more interest and benefits for Sarawak.

Citing the recent election in the UK as an example, he said Theresa May, who struggled to form a coalition, entered into a negotiation with a small Irish party to form the government.

He said the Irish political party, instead of asking for ministerial posts, was in a pivotal position to request for more funds allocated for Ireland.

“Your position to form the government isn’t for you to ask for more ministerial posts, and BN Sarawak has the pivotal position to ask for more benefits for the region, and yet they can’t even get the 20 per cent oil and gas royalty. Shame on BN Sarawak.

“Whatever position we had in 1963, the state’s power had been greatly eroded with the consent of the Sarawak government throughout the last half century. And this is something that you cannot reverse,” he stressed.

For instance, Chong said if one’s father had sold at a cheaper price the land that the grandfather had bought, the person could not approach the buyer and say the father should have sold the land at the market price and wanted to get the land back.

“Legally, you just cannot get it back,” he added.

Abang Johari announced in Sibu last Saturday that Sarawak will send a legal team to London to study references related to state’s rights under MA63.