SIBU, June 19 — Sarawak will continue to pursue autonomy over health and education matters as enshrined under the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63).
This is according to Deputy Sarawak Premier Datuk Seri Dr Sim Kui Hian who spoke yesterday of matters being constantly negotiated by different committees involved in MA63 talk headed by Deputy Premier Datuk Amar Awang Tengah Ali Hasan.
“In particular one of the things we are very keen to pursue is our autonomy over health and education because like a road, when the federal government does not build it, at least the Sarawak government can build it.
“For health and education, we can see last time when our premier wanted to repair dilapidated schools, we still had to give the money to the federal government.
“We cannot go and build our own because these two matters are under federal government,” he told reporters when met after he officiated at Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP) Pelawan and SUPP Bawang Assan joint installation here yesterday.
Also held was a ‘Ngiling Bidai’ ceremony.
Among those present were SUPP Pelawan chairman Clarence Ting, SUPP Bawang Assan chairman Senator Robert Lau, SUPP Bawang Assan advisor Temenggong Dato Vincent Lau, Deputy Minister for Education, Innovation and Talent Development Datuk Francis Harden Hollis, Deputy Minister for Public Health, Housing and Local Government II Michael Tiang, Bukit Assek assemblyman Joseph Chieng, Sibu Rural District Council chairman Sempurai Petrus Ngelai and Temenggong Stanley Geramong.
Citing the proposed construction of Sarawak Cancer Centre, Dr Sim said the state still needs to get approval from the federal government although the state government has agreed to give a loan for the project.
“We do not want the people in Sarawak to continue to suffer because the federal government said they have no money.
“So health and education are among the list of things we want to take back and the committee has been negotiating over these matters.
“At the end of the day, the federal government needs to give us back roughly RM6 billion per year for health and education.
“Apart from returning the autonomy, they still need to give us money because the income tax is collected by the federal government and so is 95 per cent oil royalty,” he said.
Dr Sim said that Sarawak insisted on having its autonomy back over education and health as it has enough talents to manage the matters.
“We know what to do. Not like in the past when we did not have enough doctors and educationists.
“Remember our late chief minister Pehin Sri Datuk Patinggi Adenan Satem said 90 per cent of teachers teaching in Sarawak must be Sarawakians.
“The purpose of this is among (the) steps moving towards getting our autonomy back. These two are very important because when we are able to get back our education rights, then we can have our own syllabus.
“We do not want the federal government to say that we lack manpower, expertise and experience to have our education rights restored.
“That is why we are progressing and slowly we will have 100 per cent of our own talents,” he said.
For these reasons, Dr Sim urged all Sarawakians to support Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) in the 15th general election.
He said that GPS has proven its sincerity and courage in defending Sarawak rights. — Borneo Post
