KUCHING: Sarawak Association for People’s Aspirations (Sapa) conducted its annual general meeting (AGM) here recently – the first after it was declared ‘an illegal society’ by then-Home Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi in November 2014.
The ministerial declaration was later quashed by the High Court of Sabah and Sarawak vide a judicial review, and of which decision was upheld by the Court of Appeal.
The appeal by the federal government to the Federal Court was later withdrawn by the new Pakatan Harapan (PH)-led government on July 18 last year.
In a statement released by Sapa, among those in the association’s newly-elected committee are president Dominique Ng, deputy president Hugh Lawrence Zehnder, and honorary-secretary Nurul Hidayah Abu Bakar.
During its first committee meeting held immediately after the AGM, the new committee discussed the planning of activities for the remainder of the year.
One of the proposed events would be the ‘722 Rally’ at Padang Central here this July.
“As part of its public education role of explaining the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63) to the people of Sarawak, Sapa will be holding a series of seminars throughout Sarawak – in Miri, Sibu and Kuching.
“We also hope to join hands and cooperate with all like-minded groups and organisations in holding such activities, and also pushing for the return of Sarawak’s rights,” said Ng, also assuring the public that Sapa would remain strictly apolitical.
It is learnt that part at least three of Sapa’s new committee members, including Ng himself, are lawyers.