KUCHING – The proposal by Barisan Nasional (BN) deputy chairman Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan to seek a new Malaysia Agreement is “brilliant and genius”, said Sarawak People’s Aspiration Party (Aspirasi) president Lina Soo.
In the same breath, she disagreed with Sarawak Tourism, Creative Industry, and Performing Arts Minister Datuk Sri Abdul Karim, who said dismantling the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63) for a new deal was “a crazy idea”.
Likening the MA63 to a broken mirror, she also disagreed with Datuk Seri Maximus Ongkili’s description of the proposal for a new deal as disrespectful and shortsighted.
“Whenever glass breaks, it signifies the end, and in the same way, a broken-down relationship after 60 years of abuse can never be salvaged,” she told The Vibes, using a metaphor.
Soo believes that the call for a new agreement is in fact farsighted and a way of thinking out of the box.
She said it is not unpatriotic to seek a new political arrangement. On the contrary, it is “pragmatic and utilitarian” to desire a solution to the economic chaos, political instability, broken promises, and loss of hope facing Malaysia today.
“I agree with Ongkili that to dissolve the MA63 is to dissolve the federation, which actually spells logic, because to construct, one has to destroy first.
“The MA63 is an international agreement signed in 1963 between five political entities – the United Kingdom, Singapore, Federation of Malaya, Sarawak, and Sabah.
Since then Singapore has exited the federation of Malaysia and the United Kingdom has relinquished all its obligations.
“This leaves only three nations. So it is appropriate after 60 years to dissolve the agreement and come up with a new political arrangement”, said Soo.
“The cessation of the Federation of Malaya agreement signed in 1948 will also be realised in the new deal,” she added.
According to her, a renewed federation can be all-encompassing and inclusive, where the component states including the federated states of Malaya can return individually to the negotiating table to agree on new terms and conditions to form a new country.
“In the new deal, each state individually has the right to self-determine where it can freely choose to merge or opt out if it would be better on its own.
“Hence, I support Mohamad’s stellar proposal for a new agreement that will supersede both the 1948 federation of Malaya agreement and the 1963 Malaysia agreement.”
Soo said the people must move forward, or they will stagnate and feel impotent and powerless in nation-building, “tangled in the quagmire of corruption, mismanagement, instability, and despair facing the nation today”.
“Let us be released from all past encumbrances and impediments holding us back today, and support a new political deal by terminating the MA63 as we would discard a broken mirror so that we can move on and forge ahead to build a new nation,” Soo added. – The Vibes, July 8, 2022
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