A principled stand for Malaysia
WISDOM: Despite shortcomings that are yet to be overcome and expectations yet to be fulfilled, Sarawak’s decision in 1963 to be part of the Malaysian federation is right
John Teo, NST
AT a time when a vocal minority in Sabah and, to a lesser extent, in Sarawak are voicing discontentment even as the nation celebrated the 50th Malaysia Day on Sept 16 to much fanfare, it is reassuring that a prominent Iban leader, Tan Sri Leo Moggie, has seen fit to come forward publicly and to an international audience in London reaffirming that Sarawak had made the right decision in choosing to be a part of Malaysia.
Speaking to the Sarawak Association at the Royal Overseas League in the British capital and as reported by Bernama early this month, the long-serving but retired senior federal minister said: “Looking back, for all the shortcomings that are yet to be overcome and expectations yet to be fulfilled, Sarawak’s decision in 1963 to be part of the Malaysian federation was right. By and large, Sarawak and Sarawakians have travelled well in the last 50 years. For us, our working lives have witnessed the unfolding progress that has been part of the Sarawak story for the last 50 years. In our own ways, we have contributed in turning Sarawak into what it is today.”
Moggie was of course holding himself up as one of the prime examples of how well-educated and sober-minded native Sarawakians can move up into the highest councils of the nation and not just as token seat-warmers but, as in his own case, as a federal minister holding critical economic portfolios, including jobs as Energy, Communications and Multimedia Minister, in a ministerial career spanning more than two decades (not counting his earlier career in public and later political office in Sarawak). At a time of continuing debate within Sabah and Sarawak over a key sore point about why infrastructure such as highways in both states is still far from at par with that in the peninsula, Moggie should perhaps be in a good position to tell of the inevitable balance that needs to be struck between political pressures and economic justifications. As a retired politician, Moggie could easily have taken the easy way out by choosing to remain silent about Malaysia and Sarawak’s place in it. Or he could have joined the populist bandwagon now to decry how Sarawak has allegedly being given short shrif.
The former course would have been less than honourable given Moggie’s particularly long stint in the federal cabinet. The latter course would have meant holding in spite his own substantial contributions to what and where Malaysia is today.
Given the bumpy political ride Sarawak has travelled over the years, Moggie’s staying power very near the top of the country’s decision-making apparatus has been quite remarkable.
Probably the most momentous and fateful political decision that had ever confronted Moggie as political leader was deciding (a party detractor of his privately described it as him being nudged along) in 1987 to throw in his lot with renegades from Parti Pesaka Bumiputra Bersatu led by Tun Rahman Ya’kub that drew in most members of the cabinet in an attempted political coup against Chief Minister Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud.
This act of political adventurism, although not engineered by Moggie or his Parti Bansa Dayak Sarawak (PBDS), would most likely have secured for Moggie or his nominee the chief ministership had it succeeded. As it turned out, PBB stayed solid after a snap state election and Moggie and his party missed the chance to lead the state by a mere five seats.
PBDS then landed in the awkward position of being in opposition to the Sarawak Barisan Nasional (BN) while remaining loyal to BN at federal level.
Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, as prime minister at the time, played a rather curious role juggling the competing demands of Sabah and Sarawak politics. In Sabah, he was doing all he could to undermine a Kadazan-led state government while in Sarawak, his loyalty to Moggie could easily have been misconstrued by Sarawak BN leaders as undercutting a Malay/Melanau-led state government.
In the end, Taib finessed a masterstroke by bringing PBDS back under a so-called BN Plus state government. Taib and Moggie maintained somewhat cool but correct relations throughout and now find themselves on the same page in the debate over Malaysia at 50, taking on a rather courageous and principled stand for Malaysia and showing to others that Malaysia need not and indeed should not be a political football the kicking of which seems all but irresistible to lesser politicians in both the Borneo states.
