You’re our past, not our future, Sarawak activist reminds Dr Mahathir

Focus Malaysia:

You’re our past, not our future, Sarawak activist reminds Dr Mahathir

By Bernie Yeo

SARAWAK rights activist Peter John Jaban has chided former premier Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad over his comment that Sarawak should help poorer states in Malaysia as it is now a high-income state.

The Saya Anak Sarawak (SAS) founder said the elderly statesman continues to display a lack of regard for a federalised system – the same lack of regard which sidelined the Borneo states and their culture during his tenure that had directly led to the autonomy movement now shaping the country today.

“Dr Mahathir is indeed the architect of modern Malaysia. He has always been a centralist and, throughout his tenure as prime minister, continually advocated for control under a single authority, namely his own,” Peter John said in a statement on Thursday (Oct 31).

“Unfortunately, it seems like the wisdom and experience of increasing age has not changed this. Given his history, it is not surprising that Tun does not seem to understand the wishes of Sabah and Sarawak to have greater control over our own resources than his government allowed.”

Peter John pointed out that Dr Mahathir’s name dominated Malaysian politics for decades and there is no doubt as to his transformative effects on the nation but to achieve this, the 99-year-old politician had consistently “diverted development funds from the Borneo states to peninsular Malaysia”.

“We in the Borneo states actually believe that the twin towers of the Petronas building should be named ‘Sabah and Sarawak’, in recognition of the role our resources have played in building this nation,” the Sarawak Association for People’s Aspirations (SAPA) publicity and information chief remarked.

“At the age of 99, it seems Dr Mahathir is now seeking to shift the burden for his failures onto the very people sidelined during his time in office.

“In fact, Sarawak has achieved high income status despite his policies, not because of them. But now the reality is laid bare. His mega projects – Cyberjaya, Langkawi, the Petronas Twin Towers, Sepang International Circuit and other costly ventures – have only benefited a select few, leaving some of the other states across Malaya to fend for themselves, just as Sarawak and Sabah have had to.”

While acknowledging that Sarawak is happy to contribute to the federal coffers through proper channels, Peter John expressed hope that the Madani government under Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s leadership will be better at equitable allocation than Dr Mahathir was.

He said while Sarawak is a high-income state, its infrastructure, all under the aegis of the federal government, remains “woefully underfunded”, adding that schools, hospitals, roads and education require investment.

“Sarawak has worked hard to get to where it is and, as we have been taught under his tenure, we will now look to ourselves to achieve this,” he stressed.

“After years of being treated as the ‘stepchildren’ of Malaysia, the Borneo states are finally standing on their own two feet.

“We hope that Dr Mahathir will stay at home to digest just how the states he dubbed as lazy, slow and greedy as recently as 2018 have pulled off this transformation.

“We hope that all our policymakers do the same. Perhaps then they will start to see that strong leaders in a properly federalised system of government, which respects the role of each state, might be the future of this nation instead of the racially-based, centralised system currently in place. So, stop asking from us.” – Oct 31, 2024