Finally making their voices heard

Friendly visit: Dressed in Sarawakian vest and headgear, Anwar, ahead of Abang Johari (in brown headdress) heads towards an event in Kapit on Sept 29. — Bernama

I’D like to begin this week’s column with a little lesson in political history. It is about a right that was “forgotten” until the Bornean territories in Malaysia recently started demanding it.

When Malaya, North Borneo (as Sabah was called then), Sarawak, and Singapore formed Malaysia on Sept 16, 1963, there were 159 seats in Parliament. Malaya had 104 parliamentary constituencies, Sarawak 24, Sabah 16, and Singapore 15.