TWO recent news reports have caught my attention. In the first week of this month, Sabah Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor was quoted saying: "It's been 61 years since we formed Malaysia together. What else is there to argue? We will live and die with Malaysia."
Hajiji made the statement after thanking the federal government for being firm on Sabah as an integral part of Malaysia, as foreign parties have disputed this.
In the same vein, Defence Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin said late last month that the government would investigate claims of a Chinese Coast Guard ship loitering around Beting Patinggi Ali, a mere 84 nautical miles off the coast of Miri in Sarawak.
"It is a threat to our sovereignty if the ship anchors there," said the minister.
There have been domestic disputes over who owns what in our coastal waters, but it is critical that such disputes be put in the proper perspective against the backdrop of sovereignty disputes raised by the words or deeds of foreign parties.
In our federation, sovereignty matters are the preserve of the federal government.
They need to be publicly articulated by either the Foreign or Defence Ministries even without any prompting from either the state governments or the public in Sabah or Sarawak.
But the statements by the Sabah chief minister and the defence minister stand out because they appear as rather random and isolated incidents.
There has been precious little aired by the public in both Sabah and Sarawak over any perceived threats to national sovereignty affecting either state.
This is in sharp contrast to the aggressive tone used by certain pressure groups in Sabah and Sarawak against federal authorities and their somewhat derisive dismissal of "Malaya" in public utterances.
Perhaps familiarity breeds a certain level of "contempt" insofar as state-federal contentious matters are involved.
But surely, any contempt or animosity ought to be directed towards foreign actors challenging the nation's sovereignty in relation to either Sabah or Sarawak.
At least in the case of Sabah, the history of the Philippine claim to it is fairly well understood and occasionally does raise the hackles of ordinary Sabahans.
China's alleged uninvited presence in Sarawak's coastal waters, although more recent, received scant attention from state leaders, local media and the public.
This is especially odd given that local fishermen's livelihoods have reportedly been disrupted by the presence of China's coast guard vessels, to say nothing of how such a presence potentially impacts the oil and gas activities concentrated in that region off Sarawak's coast.
Foreign challenges to Malaysia's sovereignty in regard to Sabah and Sarawak ought to be a powerful rallying cry for the nation, lest foreigners underestimate our resolve to defend ourselves.
Especially because this is Merdeka Month, national and state leaders must unambiguously show true leadership in uniting all Malaysians against all threats, real or potential, from without.
State leaders must resist the temptation to almost exclusively defend the parochial interests of their states. More of them should be making statesman-like statements, like Hajiji's "living and dying" with Malaysia.
The world is watching us, in particular those who may wish us ill or harm. There must not be daylight between state and the federal governments when it comes to matters affecting national sovereignty.
The writer views developments in the nation, region and wider world from his vantage point in Kuching
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect those of the New Straits Times