I refer to the criticism of my remarks made at Malaysia for Change, Sarawak (MOCS) forum held in Kuching on 29 September 2018. The title of the forum is “What is our role in Malaysia Baru”? I spoke extensively on the future of young Malaysians especially issues concerning children – protection for them, childcare policy, education and poverty.
I have also said that we must guard this Malaysia Baru fiercely because it took us a lot of hard work and long time to get here. Rebuilding Malaysia would require unity for everyone to work together. Malaysians have long been divided by race, religion and now region with sentiment such as Sarawak for Sarawakians only. We need a Malaysia Baru that focuses on us being one. The local media in Sarawak has attacked me for not respecting Sarawak. This is far from the truth.
For the first time, the federal government intends to recognize Sarawak and Sabah’s rightful position in Malaysia. I am in complete support of all efforts being made by the new Pakatan Harapan administration in recognizing and enforcing the Malaysia Agreement of 1963. Malaysia is a federation – three regions as one nation. If we intend to see this being realized in its purest form, then every region in this federation must commit to being one. Any sentiment or political rhetoric that seeks to isolate one region and exclude her people from the greater nation, be it Sarawak for Sarawakians, Sabah for Sabahans, or Peninsular Malaysia for others for that matter, cannot be healthy for nation building.
As a Deputy Minister in Putrajaya, I have travelled to Kuching, not just to speak at this forum but also to meet the stakeholders in Sarawak handling customary child marriages – to learn more about this, to engage and to receive feedback. This is the true essense of respect. I am convinced with this Malaysia Baru we have, we need new strategies to fix old problems and repeating the same old methods will not yield new results.