He noted that the state’s first two chief ministers, Stephen Kalong Ningkan and Tawi Sli, were both Dayak, but “since then, the office of Sarawak chief minister seems to have slipped out of Dayak hands”.

“When can a Dayak become a Sarawak chief minister again? Nobody knows. But at present, it seems to have become an impossible dream,” the Iskandar Puteri MP said in a statement today.

“It took over 200 years for a black man to become the US President, but Sarawak seems to have travelled in the opposite direction and receded to a stage where it is an impossible dream for a Dayak to become the Sarawak chief minister in the space of 50 years.”

He hoped to see a “new dawn” for the state with the restoration of the state’s right to enjoy equitable financial allocations, as well as autonomy in education and health matters, a just share of oil rights, and a fair share of development funds.

“I visited the Mambong and Serian constituencies this morning, and I was shocked by the state of poverty among the Dayak community, which should not exist today if Sarawak’s rights and interests had been looked after as was intended by the founders of Malaysia 58 years ago in 1963,” Lim said.

He added that this future would have to also include equal rights for all communities in Sarawak, be it the Dayak, Malay-Melanau or Chinese.

Lim also lauded the passing of the constitutional amendments yesterday to implement the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63), stating that this was just the first step in restoring the long-eroded rights of Sarawakians.