MIRI: The Pakatan Harapan government has broken many general election promises made to the rakyat – the latest being the excuse given by Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad as to why the Unified Examination Certificate (UEC) is still not acceptable to Putrajaya.

Sarawak United Peoples Party (SUPP) secretary-general Datuk Sebastian Ting said on Thursday (Jan 3) that Pakatan had also failed to fulfill its GE14 promise to return autonomy to Sarawak and Sabah, as well as to give 20% oil royalty to each of the oil-producing states.

"Pakatan's GE14 manifesto contained the promise that official recognition would be given to the UEC within 100 days of it taking over Putrajaya.

"Now it's obvious for all to see that Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir has no intention of fulfilling that election promise.

"The other promises for Sarawak, concerning increasing oil royalty and returning autonomous rights, have not been fulfilled either. SUPP is disappointed with Pakatan and so too are the rakyat in general in Sarawak.

"And why is the DAP and PKR so silent about these broken promises?" asked Ting, who is assemblyman for Piasau.

He said the Cabinet and Pakatan must be held accountable if Putrajaya continued to reject the UEC.

Ting said the reason given by Dr Mahathir recently that Putrajaya could not recognise the UEC as it might offend the Malays was not acceptable.

"Sarawak has given official recognition to UEC when Tan Sri Adenan Satem was still the chief minister before his demise.

"That policy is being continued by Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Openg. There are no disputes or unhappiness from any quarters in Sarawak over the UEC recognition.

"Even foreign countries all over the world, including India and European countries, recognise the UEC.

"The Malaysian federal government is the odd one out. SUPP wants the federal leaders to clear the air on this UEC issue fast.

"We want the federal government to quickly make a decision at the national level to give official recognition to the UEC immediately without delay.

"SUPP is grateful to the late chief minister Tan Sri Adenan Satem for taking the lead in recognising the UEC," said Ting.

When he was chief minister, Adenan criticised the refusal of the federal government to recognise the UEC.

Adenan said the unwillingness of Putrajaya to give official acceptance for this certificate of Chinese Independent schools meant that useful expertise continued to be lost.

UEC holders ended up seeking jobs elsewhere because Malaysia did not accept them, he said, describing Putrajaya's stand as stupid.