KUCHING: Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) did not vote either to reject or support the Constitution Amendment Bill 2019, but instead chose to abstain following the refusal of the federal government to agree on a proposal for the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63) to be included in the wordings.
According to a statement from the GPS members of Parliament (MPs) yesterday, the amendments were made in a hurry and did not meet Sarawak’s true demands for not including the phrase “pursuant to MA63”.
“Amendment of Article 1 (2) is not sufficient as it should be accompanied by an amendment to Article 160 (2) to avoid confusion over federal interpretations.
“In Malaysia, there are two federations, namely, the Federation of Malaya under the Malaya Agreement 1957, and the Federation of Malaysia which was formed through MA63.
“But the Malaysia Agreement is not referred to in any part of the constitution.
“Because we cannot amend Article 160 (2) under the meeting rules, therefore, we have proposed to include the “pursuant to MA63″ in the amendment to Article 1 (2),” the statement said.
It added that GPS has also suggested amendments to the definition of “federation” but this proposal is not agreed upon.
“We also propose that this Bill be further discussed at the Special Select Committee level and debated at the Sarawak Legislative Assembly,” said the statement.
The goal of equating Sabah, Sarawak and Malaya positions is based on MA63 but the proposal to include MA63 has not been agreed upon by the federal government.
For GPS, apart from the desire for status recognition, what is more important is that Sarawak rights and privileges are returned after they have been eroded over the years.
“We also want the Pakatan Harapan (PH) to fulfill their manifesto on oil and gas rights, as well as development provisions,” it pointed out.
