GEORGE TOWN: Sabah and Sarawak should be given the autonomy to decide on matters relating to education and healthcare, says Senate president Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar.
He said the states are better positioned to manage and handle the federal funds allocated for these sectors, given their intimate understanding of local challenges.
Wan Junaidi said devolving such powers to the states would be the first step in restoring their demands under the 1963 Malaysia Agreement, commonly referred to as MA63.
Other demands include territorial rights and oil royalties.“The government should give what they can first, especially the independence (to decide on) health and education.
“Britain has done so for Scotland, so why are we so slow?” he said in the Keluar Sekejap podcast on saturday.
Wan Junaidi, who was a seven-term MP for Sarawak, gave the example of the 1Malaysia clinic policy for the rural areas by former prime minister Najib Razak’s government, which was not suitable in Sabah or Sarawak.
He said it was challenging to set up such clinics in rural areas, where no shophouses are built.
As a result, most of the 1Malaysia clinics were concentrated in urban locations while 45% of Sarawakians were still living in rural areas.
As for education, Wan Junaidi said Sarawak wants to implement an English-based education system modelled after the Cambridge curriculum.
“Sarawak believes in using English (as the main medium for education),” he said, adding that it was important for the state to fast-track its education, not just its development.
Separately, Wan Junaidi lamented the trickling of infrastructure projects into Sarawak, especially for road construction.
He said if projects such as the Pan Borneo Highway had commenced earlier, it would have been much cheaper to build.
When asked why Sabah and Sarawak were not vocal about their rights in the past, he said it was because they were afraid of being detained under the now-repealed Internal Security Act.
“If you open your mouth, you’d be sent to Kamunting (the detention centre in Taiping). People were scared to voice out,” he said.
–FMT, Predeep Nambiar