Malaysia’s hornbill has reasons to fly low. The 57 years of the union has prompted many netizens of the State of Sarawak, of which this tropical bird is the symbol, to review the agreements that promised them fair treatment. Ostensibly, amid an ongoing political crisis, there could not be a better time to push for reforms of the federal system. What lies behind these demands and what are the chances of fulfilling them?
The State of Sarawak is endowed with abundant natural resources, yet to the dismay of the majority of its people the generated income gets transferred to West Malaysia (also called Peninsular Malaysia or Semenanjung). This has put East Malaysia (the states of Sarawak and Sabah) on a completely different trajectory of development, making their citizens feel left behind.
The state’s ethnic and religious distinctiveness also serves as the foundation of a separate identity.
Recently renewed debate over the issue of the control of East Malaysia’s people and resources was stirred up when the government decided to block public release of a Cabinet special committee report on the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63), which is the founding agreement of the Malaysian federation. The decades-long tug-of-war between Sarawak, Sabah and West Malaysia was supposed to reach an end after revisiting the framework that shaped the federal relationship, but the government’s secrecy now is provoking many questions.
“The report may [contain] some extraordinary rights [for Sarawakians]. If the federal government publish[es] it, it may [lose some of] its controlling power or would have to restore certain rights to Sarawak and Sabah – [that’s why they are so] reluctant to do it at this stage,” warned Leslie Ting, a member of the Sarawakian political party Parti Bumi Kenyalang (PBK).
Despite being a relatively new political force, the PBK plans to contest all 82 seats in the state election, which are due in June 2021. With its slogan “In Quest of Independence” it has already garnered a fair chunk of media attention. Can this buzz be for nothing?
In the opinion of Duke Freddie, a Bornean policy analyst, the current Abang Jo-led coalition government (Gabungan Parti Sarawak, GPS) is “most likely to win based on the current trend,” but a new opposition party championing the indigenous Dayak communities (The United Sarawak Party, PSB) should also be reckoned with.
“The federal government under the Prime Minister of Malaysia, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, has shown its commitment to the implementation of MA63, by establishing the special portfolio of Sabah and Sarawak Affairs, and this is a key to avoiding polarization or separatism,” he concluded.
“Some people have long desired secession, and in recent years the drumbeat of separation has only grown louder,” he explained, naming Sarawak for Sarawakians (S4S) as the first movement of this sort to have burgeoned as early as 2012. Through Radio Free Sarawak, activists criticized the exploitation and expropriation of the natives by the associates of Sarawak’s billionaire, Tun Pehin Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud.
Another controversy has been posed by a legislative motion that would strip Sarawak of its existent rights to determine the state’s immigration policy. “It is indeed a shocking move by Sarawak ruling alliance to plan to amend ‘resident definition,’” said Ting of the PBK. “As a result, the politicians from outside could run in the state elections,” he warned, stressing that Sarawakians do not want them to interfere, and stir problems on ethnic grounds.
“Because they were not raised in Sarawak [and] have never been exposed to our culture, this may adversely affect the […] Sarawak government, given the racism issue in the West Malaysia.”
Ethnic Chinese living in West Malaysia are constantly confronted by the inflammatory rhetoric of Malay politicians, which is meant to boost their own patriotic appeal to the majority Malay community. Portrayed as imported components of the nation’s ethnic fabric that were not always loyal to the host country (due to the involvement of some of ethnic Chinese in the communist insurgency), Chinese Malaysians are also not represented in the current federal government that came into being in February 2020.
Sarawakians want to remain shielded from being pushed around at the whim of ethnocentrist Malay politicians. But is the independence the path toward safeguarding the status quo?
Although the PBK has become highly vocal in its plans to demand secession from the Federation of Malaysia, there are many rough waves on their horizon to navigate through.
When asked about the non-secession clause in the Constitution, the PBK politicians evoke the examples of Kosovo and Rhodesia, which issued unilateral declarations of independence. Next to this, the threat of being charged with sedition for proclaiming the goal of independence is simply shrugged off.
Importantly, Sarawak has a population of just slightly above 2.6 million in territory almost equal in size to Peninsular Malaysia, which accommodates roughly 10 times more inhabitants – 92 percent of the whole nation. With excessively long land and water borders, Sarawakians would face a need to recruit foreigners to secure a hypothetical new country, an idea that goes against their home-crafted objective of Borneonization of public services. The federal government would not also sit with folded hands when it has the army at its disposal.
Ting envisions, however, that freezing all assets of Malaya in Sarawak would bring the federal government swiftly to the negotiation table.
Nevertheless, the vision of independence may simply be too radical to many members of all ethnic groups, who fear bloodshed or at least an intensified level of tensions.
Sarawak’s parties are race-based, but their political agenda has never come at the expense of non-native groups. Although East Malaysians cherish the condition of being free from deep ethnic divisions, appeals for independence could erect new walls of mistrust, something that they would like to avoid at any cost.
For the sake of avoiding backlash (be it at home in Sarawak or from the federal government), many ethnic Chinese may prefer to stick to their old strategy of reforming the federation by standard democratic means.
On the other hand, Sarawak’s Muslim Malay community, forming 26 percent of the population, may be scared of losing the support of politicians from Peninsular Malaysia as the federal government has always emphasized Malays’ rights and priorities./By Robert Bociaga/The Diplomat
