KUCHING: The strong call to include Sarawak and Sabah chief ministers in the proposed National Security Council (NSC) has received full support from PBDS Baru.
The party’s deputy president Patrick Anek Uren said it welcomed and appreciated the recent statement regarding this matter made by SUPP president Senator Datuk Dr Sim Kui Hian.
PBDS Baru also shared Dr Sim’s views, which stated: “The interests of Sarawak and Sabah should be protected at all levels of the federal government; and that members of the NSC should include the chief ministers of Sabah and Sarawak, or representatives chosen by their respective governments, and also that mandatory agreements from the chief ministers of Sabah and Sarawak be obtained first before any action is taken to declare an ‘area of safety’ in either or in both states.”
On this, Anek remarked: “We want to add here that for an important legislation such as this NSC Act 2015, it is imperative that it should reflect the spirit and intent behind the Malaysia Agreement 1963 that was signed by Britain, Malaya, Singapore, Sabah and Sarawak — the basis of Federation of Malaysia in 1963.
“With regard to when the people of Sarawak and Sabah be fully represented through their leaders in the NSC, at least they are assured that before any imposition of ‘areas of safety’, they are not only consulted first but they must also be convinced that the ‘threat to security’ are real and urgent, requiring such application of this law which would suspend the civil rights of the people to contain the same.
“In this context, we cannot allow the NSC Act 2015 to be used to stifle any genuine and legitimate political development in this country, especially under the guise of handling of threats to security.”
Anek pointed out the episode of 1965 when in the name of ‘threat of security’, and emergency order was declared, the Sarawak Constitution was suspended, and the then-chief minister Datuk Stephen Kalong Ningkan was removed from office rather unceremoniously.
Based on news reports few days earlier, PRS president Land Development Minister Tan Sri Datuk Amar Dr James Masing was also quoted as saying that he concurred with Dr Sim, on that the chief ministers of Sarawak and Sabah should be included under the proposed NSC. Masing said the federal government should recognise and understand that Sarawak and Sabah were two of the three entities that formed Malaysia, and that warranted them to sit in the NSC.
The suggestion to include chief ministers of Sarawak and Sabah in the proposed NSC was made by Dr Sim when he debated on the NSC Bill 2015 recently.