Don't get distracted by the Pandikar-Abang Johari ‘smokescreen’

“The eye is diverted from the real business, it is caught by the spectacular action that means nothing at all.”

– Agatha Christie

The past few days, Sarawak has been riled up with the drama induced by the public spat between the controversial Dewan Rakyat speaker Pandikar Amin Mulia and Chief Minister Abang Johari Abang Openg with regards to a public debate challenge on the “importance” of the Malaysian Agreement 1963 on the rightful status of Sabah and Sarawak.

The exchange got heated up and names were even thrown around, with the chief minister calling the speaker “paloi,” a local term for “stupid.”

Since then, newspapers and news portals in the state have been plastered not only with headlines over the drama, but also state leaders and political parties awakening from their slumber and jumping to the defence of the chief minister and condemning the speaker.

While we strongly condemn the childish and shocking reaction by the speaker on Abang JOhari (photo) as well as his “skewed” interpretation of MA1963 and total disregard of our equal status under the Federation, the real issue that has to be focused upon is the subject matter itself – Sarawak’s rights under the agreement, and how the BN government has continuously eroded it on top of depriving us of our rightful developments and riches.

Let us all not to be caught up with “smokescreen” of the public spat, and focus on the core question everyone should be asking: Why did the BN government chose not to rectify the “wrong” and restore our rightful status and rights, even though they have the authority to do so?

The narrative is currently dominated by the anger towards the speaker for his outburst and supposed insult to the people of Sarawak, rather the subject matter itself.

Naturally, when one of our own is being insulted, the tendency is that we will stand together against the common enemy. While it is a commended thing, this opens up the risk that the subject matter at hand may be put aside, and we may be distracted from the real issues at hand.

However, the reality is this, even though Pandikar is an Umno leader, but he is appointed into his honourable position by BN, and not elected by the people, thus making it quite possible that the Umno-BN leadership may set him up to create controversy as a “smokescreen” to the real failings in the country and state, and if needed, conveniently distance themselves from it.

This possibility is further reinforced by the fact that until now, neither the prime minister, nor any senior ministers from the government have come out and condemn the “skewed’ interpretation by the speaker.

Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi even seems to be endorsing such an interpretation, claiming that it will correct wrong and negative perceptions. He claims numerous studies conducted by previous analysts on the rights of Sabah and Sarawak had elements of bias and prejudice.

This public spat is a reminiscent of the other recent spat between the Tourism Minister Nazri Abdul Aziz and state tourism minister with regards to the implementation of tourism tax.

Even with the highly publicised spat, the reality is, nothing much came out of it, as the tax was also implemented. Sarawak only got a mere 10 percent of the return, in comparison to the demanded 30 percent.

That is why it is important, that we are not caught up with the public drama that is happening and throw the ball back to BN on why until now there have been little to no progress on our negotiations with the federal government with regards to our rights.

This despite multiple motions since 2014 have being passed unanimously in the State Assembly, including the recent motion to set up a so-called special taskforce to replace the previous taskforce, on top of the highly publicised and public-funded fact-finding mission on the MA1963 trip to London by the state’s legal team.

The reality is this, all of these can just be a political an act to score points, and to distract the people of Sarawak against issues that really matter, especially in view of the coming elections.

Believe me, BN will ride on these sentiments and supposed “support” in the elections to paint a picture of the state government being daring enough to stand up against the arrogance and dominance of Umno in BN.

However, the election is not about a public-spat nor a name-calling game, but rather on real issues that affecting us, including the ever-increasing cost of living, the degradation of our education standards, the oppression of the rights of minorities, the ever-increasing national debt, the rampant systemic corruption in the country, degrading reputation of our country on the international stage, and of course the loss of our rightful status under MA1963.

Pandikar’s (photo) actions speaks of his and Umno-BN’s arrogance and total disregard of the interest of the people in our state and their clear intention of not recognising our rights and rectifying what was wrongly done.

Thus, it is important to filter out the noise and realise the issue is about the failures of the ruling government rather than a certain demographic.

That is why it is vital to throw out BN. Only by doing so we can ensure Sabah and Sarawak takes its rightful place under MA1963.

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KELVIN YII is the special assistant to Bandar Kuching MP and Sarawak Pakatan Harapan chairperson Chong Chieng Jen.- Mkini

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