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Claims that Sarawak Chief Minister Tan Sri Adenan Satem (pictured) was threatening Sarawak’s secession from Malaysia were false, the Chief Minister’s Office said. — Bernama picMore
KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 7 — Claims that Tan Sri Adenan Satem was threatening to remove Sarawak from Malaysia over problems allegedly created by Putrajaya and Umno are false, the Chief Minister’s Office said today.
Addressing the claims posted on a Facebook page named “Sarawak Keluar Malaysia 2021”, Adenan’s office described such posts as false, malicious and misrepresenting the CM’s bid to demand more rights for the east Malaysian state.
“The chief minister has said time and again that Sarawak will never secede from Malaysia, but that doesn’t mean the state cannot fight for its rights as enshrined under the Federal Constitution, the Malaysia Agreement 1963, the Malaysia Act, the InterGovernment Committee Reports and Recommendations, and the Cobbold Commission Reports,” the CM’s Office said in a statement.
The offending Facebook page seeks to rally Sarawakians to prepare for secession from Malaysia in five years’ time.
Adenan’s press secretary Ambrose Cheng told Malay Mail Online that the Office has yet to decide whether to lodge a report with the police or the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission against the original poster.
Adenan is spearheading a movement to restore Sarawak’s status to what it was prior to a 1972 amendment to Article 2 of the Federal Constitution that rendered it to being just one of the country’s 14 states and territories.
He is also pressing for the state to be given a greater share of the revenue from the oil extracted from its waters.
The chief minister has also been openly critical of Putrajaya’s policies such as the prioritisation of Bahasa Malaysia over English in education, which he blamed for the country’s jobless graduates.
One of Adenan’s ministers will table a motion in the Sarawak state assembly this month on the call to amend the Federal Constitution and return the state to its status ascribed by the Malaysia Agreement 1963.
Calls for secession are an offence under the Sedition Act.
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