Taib’s man to debate Malaysia Agreement
(FMT) – A senior council member of Chief Minister Taib Mahmud’s Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB) party has agreed to an open debate with self-professed Sarawak nationalist groups on the formation of Malaysia despite a warning by a federal level deputy minister not to do so.
PBB supreme council member Idris Buang has accepted a social media open debate challenge made to him by several Facebook groups on the suggestion that Sarawak and Sabah should pull of Malaysia.
Among those who threw the challenge at Idris were bloggers, social media users and administrators of popular Sarawak/Borneo activists facebook group such as Sabah & Sarawak Keluar Malaysia (SSKM), Sarawak Sovereignty Movement (SSM) and The Future of Sabah/Sarawak and the Federation of Malaysia (SSF).
Idris, in accepting the challenge through a Facebook posting, said the individuals and groups were “inciting Sabahans and Sarawakians to cede from Malaysia’ insinuating that they were a ‘threat’.
He said the groups had refused to debate with him “face to face” and had instead resported to creating Facebook pages “especialy to debate against me”.
“As it is important for the peace and prosperity of Sarawak, and also the country of Malaysia that I love dearly, I accept this challenge on the condition it is going to be managed fairly and according to Malaysian laws.
“I do not want our people, especially our younger generation to be provoked, tricked and led astray by these groups to be rebellious or to destroy our beloved Malaysia,” Idris noted in his Monday posting.
Setting out the rule of the debate Idris said: “I am taking up this challenge of yours. Now, please get all your SSKM, SSM, SSF people and supporters in, and I will get mine too.
“We need them to be in as our “live audience” who can also responsed.
“Secondly, after a substantial number of the audience is already on board, you as proposers must start to put all you points but in brief.
“From that point on, I/We ( my team & I) will thenceforth give my argument, also briefly point by point.
“You may then give your response to my argument also categorically and I/We will exercise the right of the last say as the opposers to your proposition that ‘Sabah & Sarawak should pull out of Malaysia’,” he said.
