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Soo (right) and S4S activist Lucas Chin waving the historic Sarawak flag in Padungan.
KUCHING (3 September): Sarawak People’s Aspiration Party (Aspirasi) chairwoman Lina Soo finds it comical that Datuk Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah has called Sarawakians flying the old colonial state flag as “unpatriotic ”.
He asked why the Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture was “so afraid of the flag” and advised him to read and understand the history of the flag before questioning the loyalty of the people of Sarawak.
“This historic flag of Sarawak is registered under the Flag and Emblem Ordinance and was the national flag of Sarawak flown from July 1, 1946 to August 30, 1973, making this flag a total of 27 years. waved with pride over our homeland.
“If like Datuk Abdul Karim claims that this flag is a colonial flag, he must be believing that from 1963 to 1973, Sarawak was also a colony under the administration of Malaysia. Does that mean that the Sarawak government was unpatriotic and disloyal for ten years, from 1963 to 1973? it said today in a statement.
She was responding to Abdul Karim’s comments yesterday in which he criticized the people of Sarawak who fly the old colonial state flag and called them unpatriotic.
Soo noted that when the late Tan Sri Stephen Kalong Ningkan was appointed Chief Minister on July 22, 1963, announcing the start of Sarawak’s administrative self-government, the flag was the national flag of Sarawak.
“For the people of Sarawak, this same flag has come to symbolize the Ningkan spirit of July 22, 1963 in their vision of a glorious and prosperous Sarawak. Marking this historic flag as a colonial and unpatriotic flag is an attempt to erase Ningkan’s legacy as Sarawak’s Supreme Chief from July 22, 1963 to September 23, 1966, and whose illegal removal as Chief Minister in 1966 was a black spot on our history since, “she said.
He also found it ridiculous that the Asajaya Assemblyman forced the people of Sarawak to accept August 31 as a symbolic day of Sarawak’s independence.
“This is distorting history since August 31, 1957 was the date that Great Britain granted independence to the Federation of Malaya, and Malaysia did not yet exist. To accept the date of Malaya’s independence of August 31, 1957 as the date of Sarawak’s independence is to tell the people of Sarawak that we have indeed been absorbed and colonized by Malaya on September 16, 1963 ”, he alleged.
Soo said that he and Sarawak for Sarawakians (S4S) had gone to Padungan to install flags on July 22 this year.
“I even visited the Padungan police station to ask the police to clarify if there is any prohibition on the possession and display of the historic flag.
“They assured me that there is no law that prohibits the display of any of Sarawak’s registered flags and that no crime has been committed,” he said.
At the closure of the Samarahan district [email protected] Yesterday’s program, Abdul Karim felt that those who fly the colonial flags of the old state do not have a sense of patriotism and do not appreciate the independence that the state had won.
He said that the people of Sarawak, including political leaders, must respect and accept August 31 as a symbolic day of independence for Malaysia, including Sarawak.
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