Voon Lee Shan

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By DayakDaily Team

KUCHING, July 3: Parti Bumi Kenyalang (PBK) president Voon Lee Shan has called for the title of Head of State of Sarawak to be addressed as Governor and not Tuan Yang Terutama (TYT).

He said the Head of State of Sarawak was previously addressed as Governor during the British era and this was later downgraded as TYT after the Federation of Malaysia was formed.

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“The title ‘Governor of Sarawak’ is a reflection that Sarawak was a sovereign country that helped formed Malaysia.

“It is not morally and politically right to only upgrade the title of ‘Chief Minister of Sarawak’ to ‘Premier of Sarawak’ while leaving the title of Head of State unchanged.

“It is opportune time to revert the title of TYT to Governor come this Sarawak Day (July 22),” he said in a statement today.

Voon further said the Sarawak government should not allow itself to be dictated by the Federal government because it has the autonomy to do things that is in the best interest of Sarawak.

“The Sarawak government should take note that when the Federation of Malaysia was formed, Lee Kuan Yew did not relinquish or change or downgrade his title from Prime Minister to Chief Minister when Tunku Abdul Rahman insisted Lee Kuan Yew drop the title of Prime Minister because Tunku said, a country cannot have two Prime Ministers.

“This shows Lee Kuan Yew knew the rights of Singapore in the Federation of Malaysia. Thus, Sarawak should emulate Singapore,” he added. — DayakDaily