The primary core of Sarawak’s special rights is the recognition of the state having “equal status” as the founding partners in the federation.

“This key element is distinctively missing in the recently launched BN Sarawak manifesto. Thus, the manifesto has failed to capture the imagination of the people of Sarawak and is defective,” said DAP parliamentary candidate Dr Kelvin Yii (above).

In a statement to Malaysiakini today, Yii said the manifesto has not only failed to recognise Sarawak’s rightful standing under the Malaysian Agreement 1963 (MA63) but has also repeated many other promises from the past which have never been fulfilled.

“The manifesto is merely packaged in a gaggle of different wordings,” he added.

He pointed out that last year a high-powered legal delegation led by Federal-State Relations Project Monitoring Minister Sharifah Hasidah Sayeed Aman Ghazali went to London in an effort to study and retrieve the rights of Sarawak as embodied in the MA63.

“What came of that highly-publicised and public-funded trip? The BN government had very little to show for all the effort of that fact-finding trip,” said Yii who is also special assistant to state DAP chairperson Chong Chieng Jen.

“All that is listed in the state BN manifesto are 13 administrative delegations of power to the state which have failed to address the core desire of Sarawakians,” he said.

“Besides that, our demand for 20 percent oil royalty, which was a motion unanimously passed in our state assembly back in 2014, is also notably missing.

“With all that talk about Petros being our own home-grown oil company, our oil royalty remains a mere five percent,” said Yii.

'Telling point'

He said the manifesto has also not indicated any intention for fiscal devolution and returning of the power of taxation to the state.

“This is the most integral when it comes to our fight for greater autonomy. If we do not have the power over taxation, we will forever be at the mercy of the federal government in terms of funding,” said Yii.

“For BN to attempt to insert our rights under the MA63 as an election manifesto is an insult to the ‘spirit of the agreement’ and a clear ‘telling point’ of the insincerity of the manifesto,” he added.

On the other hand, he said, the Pakatan Harapan manifesto clearly recognises the territorial status of Sabah and Sarawak as equal partners in the federation.

“We have also pledged 20 percent oil royalty and also a 50 percent of all taxes collected in Sarawak back to the state even if the state government is still under BN.

“We also will give full autonomy in education and healthcare back to the state so we can chart our own future in these two critical departments and take care of our own matters,” Yii pointed out.