KUCHING: All Sarawak members of parliament (MPs) must exercise due diligence in studying the proposed amendment to Article 1 of Federal Constitution, says State Reform Party Sarawak (STAR) president Lina Soo.
She cautioned that every MP from Sarawak must be very careful with the wording of the amendment, as the exact nature and constitutional change has yet to be revealed.
Soo said she personally believes that the constitutional requirement is to repeal the Constitutional Amendment A354 Sec 2 of 1976 to revert Article 1 to its original status as stipulated in the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63).
She cautioned that the MA63 Annex A: Malaysia Bill: 4(1) states that the Federation shall be known in Malaya, and in English, by the name Malaysia, while 4(2) states that the States of the Federation shall be (a) The States of Malaya, namely Johore, Kedah, Kelantan, Malacca, Negri Sembilan, Pahang, Penang, Perak, Perils, Selangor and Terengganu; and (b) The Borneo States, namely Sabah and Sarawak; and (c) The State of Singapore. 4(3) states that the territories of each of the States mentioned in Clause (2) are the territories comprised therein immediately before Malaysia Day.
“Any attempt to amend, distort or add to the wordings of the definition of Federation over and above 4(2)(a) and 4(2)(c) could even be seen as a trap where Sarawak’s constitutional rights could be compromised. To change the word ‘State’ into any other word such as ‘Wilayah’ or ‘Territory’ would be questionable as Borneo State, as used in MA63, means nation-state and country as in general usage of the word in English,” she told a press conference here yesterday.
Soo also called upon the federal government not to stop at Article 1(2), but to amend and/or repeal all other federal legislation altering MA63, to be declared null and void.
She stressed that all federal laws which compromise the rights of Sarawak under MA63 must be expunged from the Federal Constitution or added with a proviso to state that the federal law shall not apply to Sarawak.
Two glaring examples are the Petroleum Development Act 1974 (PDA) and Territorial Sea Act 2012 (TSA) which have altered Sarawak’s political boundary and violated the state rights as landowner holding all economic rights to its resources, including oil and gas, upon its land and seas, she said.
On top of that, Soo said Sarawak must be compensated for the wealth lost to the federal government and Petronas as a result of these federal laws, which are unconstitutional and cannot be applied to Sarawak under MA63 and Federal Constitution provision and protected rights.
She said it was indeed good news that Pakatan Harapan (PH) Sarawak chairman Chong Chieng Jen has announced that Putrajaya will return to Sarawak what had taken away since 1976.
However, she called upon Chong to be specific and precise as to what he meant by the return of ‘equal partner status’ and the implication to return all rights which were taken from Sarawak for 43 years.
“Is Chong implying that Sarawak will get a third of the annual national budget, a third of the seats in Parliament and, even more importantly, that all economic and property rights over Sarawak oil and gas will be restored to Sarawak?
“These are real and substantive issues of equality and justice of which Chong must state his stand clearly if he is to go beyond the political cliché of ‘equal partnership’.
“lf Chong cannot clarify the status of ‘equal partnership’ for Sarawak, and remains vague and just bandies the ‘equal partner status’ term for political mileage, will this not be yet another promise of Chong made to be broken?” she asked.
Soo also called on the Sarawak state legislative assembly (DUN) to pass a resolution to reject the PDA and TSA so that they can put in the Hansard for the state’s constitutional record.
Source : Borneo Post by Rintos Mail
Indie Borneo 