KUCHING, April 21 — Sarawak Premier is equivalent in federal protocol to the Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia, said Datuk Amar Dr Sim Kui Hian.
The Deputy Premier revealed that this was instructed by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim through the federal cabinet and subsequent circulars by the Chief Secretary to the Government (KSN) to all members of the federal civil service.
“No longer (the Premier is) seated after at best, behind (or) at worst any of Federal Minister in any of the Federal official functions,” said Dr Sim in a Facebook post early today.
He said this reflects Sarawak’s status in Malaysia since the change of title from ‘Chief Minister of Sarawak’ to ‘Premier of Sarawak’ after the Sarawak constitutional amendment in February 2022.
According to him, many people have probably missed the subtle change in a recent Hari Raya Aidilfitri open house hosted by Sarawak Legislative Assembly where the venue was named ‘Dewan Undangan Sarawak’ instead of the commonly known ‘Dewan Undangan Negeri Sarawak’.
“It’s time for every Sarawakian to support this subtle but significant changes,” he added.
He pointed out that even former prime minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin called Sarawak a ‘wilayah’ (region) rather than ‘negeri’ (state) after the constitutional amendment.
“Let’s be consistent and start from ourselves not to call Sarawak ‘Negeri’, following Dewan Undangan Sarawak without the need for ‘Negeri’. So is (the term) Sarawak Government rather than Sarawak State Government,” he added. — The Borneo Post
