Most Read
Most Commented
Read more like this

The past few days, we have seen how movements like ‘Sarawak for Sarawakians’ have been gaining momentum and popularity among us fellow Sarawakians. State nationalism and state pride which is the core of the movement is noble and also vital to keep our people unified and focussed on demanding what is rightfully ours.

I do believe that one of the primary causes of such an uprising in state nationalism or a sense of regionalism is due to our utmost displeasure how our state has not gotten our fair share and treated as equal partners as agreed in the Malaysian Agreement 1963. As a result we see underdevelopment in many parts of our state, hard-core poverty still existing among many of our rural areas, and the ever-expanding gap between the rich and the poor in the state.

We throw blames at our cousin in the west (Malaya) who short-changed us, ‘colonised’ us and misused our resources for their own self-interest. We are frustrated that we are not given adequate autonomy to run our own state instead getting instructions from Putrajaya who we believe do not have our best interests at heart.

In all fairness, the predicament that we are in sort of justifies all these frustrations and sentiments. However in all our frustrations as justifiable it may be, we must not allow ourselves to slide into the blame game and push all faults to the west.

Look, I am not saying they are not at fault, but isn’t it always easier to blame others for our predicament and lose focus on the bigger picture? I would like to suggest that maybe we also need to do some self-reflection and maybe also share some blame for the muddle that we are in.

We must understand sentiments like state nationalism or regionalism in the midst of anger and frustration draws on our basic instinct, the desire to stick to our own kind and blames the rest out there. Fact is there is a very thin line between racism and regionalism. Aren’t these similar (not necessarily the same) sentiments used by political parties in the west which we detest so much and now used in our state as well?

Sarawak Chief Minister Adenan Satem is probably the main person capitalising nationalist pro-regionalism and pro-autonomy movements to gain support and making it the basis of his power. He and other BN component parties are playing to the sentiments to kick out all Malayan base political parties which in fact will wipe out the state’s opposition.

The government basically has everything to gain, and the opposition has everything to lose. This to me is clearly riding on current populist sentiments for self-interest.

Fact is, Sarawak-based party have been in power since independence, but yet they have allowed themselves to stand aside while our neighbours took advantage of us and ransacked our riches. What worst is, the Sarawakians, mind you, themselves have plundered our land riches for themselves at the expense of our very own people. The thing is, all these violations did not just happen overnight but have been going on for years.

Where were our local elected leaders then? Why were they not crying foul, crying out for autonomy or even crying out for what’s rightfully ours there and then when it happened?

Then can we in clear conscience now still throw the full blame of our predicament towards our cousins in the west?

Wrong diagnosis, wrong medications

When given the wrong diagnosis for our disease, we will then be administered the wrong medications. May I humbly suggest that maybe the nucleus of our conundrums is neither our cousins in the west, neither Malayan-based political parties, but actually bad governance and corruption. It is systemic rather than demographic.

Let’s be honest with ourselves, do we even trust our current state leaders to handle the 20 percent of oil royalty we are demanding and believe it will be distributed responsibly?

In a healthy political system, there must always be a strong check and balance between the government and opposition. The origin of the party to me is not the issue, but the people in power should be the focus.

From what I understand, many of the ‘local’ opposition party jumped ship when having a carrot dangled at them. The heart of the problem is the problem of the heart. That’s why is important our vote goes to people who have a genuine desire to put the interests of the people first, rather than getting themselves a cut of the pie of our state resources.

My fellow Sarawakians, lets us in all our frustrations and anger, push ourselves to think bigger. Let us realise the power we have in our hands to change our predicament and not just wait for Putrajaya to tell us whether or not we have autonomy or greater control. Instead of just wanting to opt out of the problem and seclude ourselves, we should realise we can make a difference in changing the whole political landscape of the whole nation.

Maybe instead of being a fixed deposit, let’s change it to a lost deposit by refusing to strengthen a proven corrupt regime that has already messed up our nation.

ADS