KUCHING, April 10 — Putrajaya must engage sections from Sabah and Sarawak who have raised issues regarding that states’ autonomy rather than try and stifle these with amendments to the Sedition Act, Sarawak DAP chairman Chong Chieng Jen stressed today.
Chong said the discontent was the result of the federal government’s unfair treatment of the two states, which have led to calls for a referendum in both Sabah and Sarawak.
“The best thing that the federal government should do, instead of amending the Act to suppress and oppress the voices of Sarawakians and Sabahans calling for referendum, is to address the unequal treatment between Peninsula Malaysia and Sarawak and Sabah,” Chong told reporters today.
Among others, he said the grouses was the result of issues such as hudud in Kelantan, the Islamisation allegedly being conducted by 4,000 religious teachers from the peninsula, failure to accede to demands for greater royalties for oil extracted from the states and the sidelining of natives in the civil service.
“These are the things that make the people of Sarawak unhappy,” Chong, who is also the Kota Sentosa state lawmaker, said.
Chong added that attempting to stifle this discontent, instead of addressing, it will only fuel the dissatisfaction.
Saying that while he does not support calls for secession, he understood the move by such groups to demand for a referendum.
The Sedition Act was amended at 2.30am today after a record 14 hours of debate and, among others, cements the demand for the secession of any state as an offence under the colonial-era law.
