Michael Tiang
KUCHING: Sarawak United Peoples’ Party (SUPP) Youth chief Michael Tiang is supportive of the formation of Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) which should focus more on Sarawak’s rights and interests.
He said the four political parties under GPS namely Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB), SUPP, Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS) and Progressive Democratic Party (PDP), which are no longer a part of Barisan Nasional (BN) have now more independence.
“We are no longer a part of a national alliance, but a local alliance focusing more on Sarawak’s rights and intersts.
“At the same time, we can collaborate with the Pakatan Harapan (PH) government on national interests and needs,” he said in a statement today commenting on the recent formation of GPS.
Tiang, who is political secretary to the Chief Minister, asserted that the “biggest impact brought forth by GPS is to put the federation of Malaysia at a right perspective according to the original way we formed the federation in 1963”.
He reminded that way back in 1963, the Federation of Malaya, Singapore (which withdrew from the federation in 1965), Sabah (then Northern Borneo) and Sarawak were four territories having their sovereignty in state government, state assembly, local governments as well as local political party platforms.
Such ‘separation of powers’, he said, was an indispensable and fundamental feature to the foundation of the federation of Malaysia.
This feature was meant to ensure all founding partners enjoyed an equal position and independent political powers to achieve self-government in the federation, yet all partners came together to build a united and prosperous federation in the international community, he added.
At present, he said the new political combination to govern Malaysia had been finalised following the formation of GPS on Tuesday as well as PH for Peninsular Malaysia and Warisan for Sabah.
“This is unlike the political landscape in the past whereby a huge political alliance – BN was governing the whole Malaysia with the powers centralised in Peninsular Malaysia.
“This caused inequality in national distribution of wealth and power particularly to Sabah and Sarawak,” he pointed out.
Tiang, a lawyer by profession, said the “BN model” that the Peninsular Malaysia side was domineering over Sabah and Sarawak in the past had proven not to be conducive in the long run.
“Thus, it (BN model) burst during the last general election,” he quipped.
With the separate political platforms being formed in the three territories, respectively, he said there will be a more effective mechanism for check-and-balance of the national sharing of wealth and powers.
“Through this, we can each concentrate on our individual territorial’s needs and wants. We should keep this separate so that there will not be a nation-wide collusion n the name of a political alliance to the detriment of our democracy in the future,” he added.