KUCHING: Sarawak people are not worried about the proposed move to ratify United Nations' International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD) despite it being hotly debated in Peninsular Malaysia.
Parti Amanah Negara (Amanah) communications director Khalid Abdul Samad said he believed this was because Sarawakians have learnt to live peacefully and harmoniously with one another.
“Look at the multiracial society here, they are not affected by the issue. Sarawak has always set the best example when it comes to racial and religious tolerance. Also, I believe it is also because there's no Umno here,"
The Federal Territories Minister said although Pas has a presence in the state, its members appeared to have realised that playing up such issue would be a waste of time.
KUCHING, Nov 27 ― DAP's Bandar Kuching Member of Parliament said that while he respects the federal government's plan to introduce guidelines on road signs, it is not applicable to Sarawak.
Kelvin Yii said the guideline to have road signs be in Bahasa Malaysia as mooted by the Minister of Local Government and Housing should remain as guidelines.
“Based on our rights and Malaysia Agreement 1963, Sarawak has its own Local Government Regulation 1963 and Local Authority Ordinance, among others, which give us certain autonomous powers when it comes to the running of the local government,” he said when responding to the minister.
Yii urged the federal government to understand the autonomous powers that Sarawak has as a territory, pointing out that more consultations have to be held before any federal policies can take hold in Sarawak.
According to Zuraida Kamaruddin, her ministry had issued the directive to all local governments in the country, including Sarawak, on the use of Bahasa Malaysia in road signs next year.
Yii said that the presence of multi-lingual signboards has not been an issue in Sarawak, but rather it is celebrated based on Sarawakians' respect for diversity and the importance of different languages.
“While we also support the promotion of our national language, there are a lot of ways to promote it besides the changing of road signs which may incur unnecessary additional cost.
“English itself is still treated as the second official language of Sarawak and is used as the official language in the courts of Sarawak and also the proceedings in the Sarawak State Assembly,” he said.
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