GE14 | Branding itself as the “third force”, the fledgling Sarawak Peace Party (SPP) has asked voters in the state to give the BN and Pakatan Harapan coalitions a miss for the coming general election.

“We are contesting to lend Sarawak a voice. This is something that BN and the Harapan coalitions have failed in and that is why we are contesting in the upcoming general election,” the party formed in 2013 said in a statement.

According to SPP, BN does not deserve another mandate to rule Sarawak.

“The BN coalition has had 55 years to get things right. So whatever promised in their manifesto for the benefit of Sarawak now is no longer ‘significant’ to us,” the party added.

SPP said if Sarawak’s local BN candidates truly have Sarawak in their hearts, they must withdraw from BN and use their local party’s flag to represent Sarawakians.

“This is how Sarawak can gain full benefit from them and not simply lend their voice and mandate to Malaya (West Malaysia),” it said.

SPP also pointed out that Harapan does not deserve the support of Sarawakians.

“The Harapan coalition also does not deserve the mandate to serve us as they too have failed on many fronts,” it said.

It said the biggest failure was when DAP’s Lim Kit Siang was present at the parliamentary sitting that passed the law to reduce Sarawak's status from “negara” to “negeri” in 1976 and caused the states 42 years of losses.

“Lim has not raised a protest and has never enlightened us on this fact that Sarawak was in fact a “negara” (a nation-state),” SPP said.

According to SPP, both BN and Harapan have acted to Sarawak’s detriment and till today both coalitions have not said that they will seek for the relevant Act to be repealed.

“If we are given the mandate to sit in Parliament, we will look into the legal aspects of whether the multiple breaches and violations in the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63) constitute a consensual and wilful discontinuance of the international treaty, by the federal governments, as well as the Sabah and Sarawak state administrations and the international law on treaties,” said SPP.

State referendum

SPP also pointed out that the rule of international law states that a treaty must be made and kept in good faith. If parties have breached this rule by breaking the fundamental terms of the treaty, it will have the same effect as ending the treaty.

“In this respect, we want to look into the fact whether the parties to the treaty ‘illegally’ revised MA63 when Singapore exited in 1965 (and later gaining independence in the same year), thereby destroying the fundamental basis of four component states forming the federation on Sept 16, 1963,” it said.

It added that if MA63 is no longer binding on the parties, the just and appropriate thing to do would be to hold a state referendum on whether Sarawak should continue to be a member of the federation.

SPP is contesting in the parliamentary constituencies of Sibu and Lanang.

It is offering two women candidates, lawyer Priscilla Lau, 49, for the Sibu parliamentary seat and businessperson Jamie Tiew for the Lanang seat.

Lau will be up against BN’s Andrew Wong and DAP’s Oscar Ling while Tiew will be contesting against DAP’s Alice Lau and BN’s Kelvin Kong in Lanang.

Lau had contested the Palawan state seat in the 2016 state election on the Sarawak Reform Party (Star) ticket and garnered only 595 votes.

Tiew was originally an SUPP member and later joined UPP for 25 years. She was Pelawan UPP women’s chief before quitting last month.