FOCUS: “Sarawak for Sarawakian” was the battle cry originally used by the pro-Independence movement wanting full independence for Sarawak before the formation of Malaysia.
The actual formation was to be discussed by a Sarawak government that was already independent then. It could opt out if it so wished.
However this battle cry lost. The voices fearing an Indonesian invasion campaigned that Malaya’s military abilities and experience would be able to handle any such invasion. Therefore, the group which stressed that Sarawak would be better off forming Malaysia with Sabah and Singapore won.
In recent years, this “Sarawak for Sarawakians” slogan has come to life in a people-backed movement but it is unique because it means different things to the different groups that have embraced it.
Some see it as an independence movement wanting to detach Sarawak from the federation of Malaysia. Others see it as Sarawakians screaming for a better deal and a reset to the tune of the Malaysia Agreement.
Just like the independence movement back in the day, the contemporary S4S element who actually want to separate Sarawak from Malaysia has been defeated yet again.
The voices of more autonomy and a better deal have got it. This happened when Adenan Satem said no to separation and yes to devolution of powers and securing Sarawak’s lost rights as per the Malaysia Agreement.
As the Sarawak state election looms, we see all the political parties in the arena attaching themselves to any element linking to the S4S euphoria.
DAP capitalized on a S4S do on 22 July 2015, breaching the police permit on purpose to grab the limelight, as they are so prone to do.
PKR personalities have claimed that they can get a referendum despite the fact that our country doesn’t even have a referendum law. They were obviously riding on the ‘direct democracy phenomenon’ in Europe such as the Scotland Referendum, Crimean Referendum, Greek Referendum and perhaps soon the Catalonia Referendum in Spain.
The BN has also capitalized on this phenomena and the Sarawak CM, the master tactician that he is, unveiled decisive and actionable policies most notably is stopping racial and religious bigots from entering Sarawak. This showed the maintenance and might of our immigration autonomy.
Adenan then assured the free use of ‘Allah’ in speech and in writing – stressing on religious freedom, unlike in Malaya. The masterstroke is when he got the Sarawak Legislative Assembly to pass a bill to start renegotiations and revisiting the Malaysia Agreement.
He followed that up with official negotiations with the prime minister and also direct consultations between the State Secretary of Sarawak and the Chief Secretary to the federal government.
It is now official with the announcement by Prime Minister Najib Razak that only the Sarawak government can negotiate with Putrajaya and no one else. Checkmate!
The imagination of the people is focused now. People are seeing the CM putting his words into action even giving a timeline on the process of devolution. The people are hooked to every word he utters so in my humble opinion, Adenan is by far the one able to capitalize on the people’s sentiments successfully.
SUPP also embraced this call but this time SUPP learned from experience and realised that revisiting the Malaysia Agreement was the correct way to go. Thus their slogan “Safeguarding Sarawak’s Autonomy”, subtly pointing out that Sarawak is already somewhat autonomous. SUPP subsequently launched their “SUPP for Sarawakians - Since 1959” slogan.
I surmise that BN will be the political party that will benefit the most from the S4S phenomena and CM Adenan’s leadership will ensure a restoration of Sarawakian rights.
So how will it translate into votes? The CM is not leaving it to chance. He has stated many times that he wants a big mandate so that he can have more power to negotiate with Putrajaya. In plain language, it means “give me more votes and I will deliver what you want”.
Adenan even told the Chinese voters plainly after he approved the RM5 million grant for Chinese independent Schools and recognising the UEC certificate to give him five more years so that he would deliver more.
So come the state election, we can expect BN to be the biggest beneficiary of the S4S movement.-The Ant Daily
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