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Thursday, September 11, 2014

Group rejects Merdeka Day, will celebrate independence on September 24

A Sarawak nationalist group has decided to thumb its nose at the national Merdeka Day celebrations and will mark independence day on September 24 instead.

The Sarawak Association for Peoples' Aspiration (Sapa) announced plans to mark the state’s independence on this day instead, which is the date in 1841 that the territory of Kuching was ceded to James Brooke by the Brunei sultanate.

The independence of Kuching – before Brooke expanded his area of rule to what is Sarawak today – was internationally recognised, Sapa president Lino Soo said.

“Why should we mark August 31 as independence day?” Soo asked.

“Sarawak does not need to mark August 31 as the state did not gain her independence on that date.”

Sapa was formed to pressure Putrajaya to comply with the full terms of the Malaysia Agrement, especially on self-determination of the state.

Soo said Sapa intends to call the September 24 independence day the “Fair Land Sarawak Day” after the name of the old state anthem “Fair Land Sarawak”.

Soo was speaking at a press conference today in response to a statement by Deputy Home Minister Datuk Dr Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar warning Sabah and Sarawakian activists for advocating “independence” from Malaysia.

Soo said apart from a short-lived period of self-determination from July 1963, Sarawak was never given any independence. July 22 is the date the state obtained independence from British rule, on the condition that it join the Federation of Malaysia on September 16 the same year.

“We cannot say that we have an independence day apart from September 24, 1841,” Soo said.

The Sarawak government downplayed the importance of the August 31 Merdeka Day this year by celebrating it in the small rural town of Kapit.

The Federal government, in an attempt to make Merdeka Day celebrations more acceptable to the two Bornean states, may hold future celebrations without specifying the number of anniversaries.

Communication and Multimedia Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Shabery Cheek on September 8 said mention of the anniversary year might be omitted from Merdeka celebrations from next year.

A growing number of people from the two Borneo states, including some political leaders, are not in favour of Putrajaya's push to have August 31 as the national independence day.

Among them is Sarawak Land Development Minister Tan Sri Dr James Masing (right) who said that Malaya, Sarawak and Sabah have different independence dates, “the date we should choose as Hari Kemerdekaan should be the date when Malaysia was born, September 16”.

“That date is common to all the three regions. There is no confusion with September 16. So I suggest we use September 16 as Hari Malaysia or National Day,” he had said.

“Other dates could be celebrated as regional celebration by the three respective regions that came together to form Malaysia,” Masing said.

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