According to the Entrepreneur Development and Cooperatives Minister, the Madani government has, in line with the constitutions of both states, agreed to allow the use of English in official matters including court proceedings and the State Legislative Assemblies in Sabah and Sarawak.
This announcement comes less than a month after PM10 issued a directive stipulating that all official correspondence for government affairs, including those from the private sector, must be conducted in Bahasa Malaysia, with the exception of communications from international companies.
The Madani government appears to treading on an unofficial one country, two systems where within Semenanjung, it will maintain its governance system in accordance to the Federal Constitution while Sarawak and Sabah continue under its own constitutions while maintaining ties with the Federal government in Putrajaya.
Proponents of the madani government will argue that this shows that federalism is properly tended to and states are accorded due powers, including autonomy where applicable and a federal structure that is more in tune and relevant to the times.
Is this policy correct?
The ordinary rakyat hopes that the Madani government is not acting on impulse or playing tricks but are proceeding from reality and taking into full account the past and present circumstances of both Sarawak and Sabah.
Sarawakians and Sabahans have already proven time and again that they are quite capable of administering their own affairs.
The notion that they cannot manage affairs in their own place satisfactorily is a leftover from the old colonial mentality.
It was due to their own efforts, the Sarawakians and Sabahans, that has changed their image.
No matter what clothes they wear or what political stand they take, their sense of pride in their own states is clear throughout the years.
Especially the prosperity of Sarawak which has been achieved mainly by Sarawakians who are no less intelligent than Malaysians from Semananjung and are by no means less talented.
They themselves have shown that it is not true that only Malaysians from Semananjung can be good administrators.
They are just as capable.
The view that Sarawakians and Sabahans lack self-confidence is not really shared by them themselves.
PM10 has shown the way in not demanding that both Sarawak and Sabah adhere to the Federal system of administration.
That does not mean Sarawak and Sabah is separated from the people in Semananjung.
The ordinary rakyat in Semanjung only ask Sarawakians and Sabahans to love their fellow Malaysians across the South China Sea as much as they love their own states.
Together, both Sarawakians and Sabahans and their fellow Malaysians from Semenanjung can help to ensure and maintain the prosperity and stability of Malaysia as a nation at all costs.
Maybe leaders from Sarawak and Sabah could be occupying majority of the positions in Putrajaya one day in future.
It is not impossible or a possibility but a plausible probability.
The country's unity and well-being would be better served by a broad and inclusive idea of Malaysia in the vein of a civic nation, which facilitates multiple identities that reinforce each other, rather than narrow conceptions that pit one identity against another.
Being proud to be Sarawakians and Sabahans should not be viewed as detrimental to the Malaysian identity and vice versa.
This concept argues for inclusiveness and equality irrespective of ethnicity or religion away from the narrow or exclusive conception and attempts to forge a unitary state based on ethnicity or religion for the last few decades.
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