KUCHING: A senior Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB) member hopes to see Sabah and Sarawak given back their ‘lost’ parliamentary seats.
Vice-president Datuk Seri Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah said the return of the seats was necessary to maintain the safeguards which Malaysia’s founding fathers had sought when they negotiated to form Malaysia.
“Thus, I fully agree with the de facto law minister Datuk Seri Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar’s recent statement that Sabah and Sarawak should try to recover the loss of more than 30 per cent seats in Parliament,” he told New Sarawak Tribune yesterday (Mar 15).
He was prompted for comments on the issues relating to distribution of parliamentary seats among Sabah and Sarawak as mentioned by Wan Junaidi.
Abdul Karim, who is the Asajaya assemblyman, noted that when Malaysia was formed, the regions comprising Sabah, Sarawak and Singapore which made up 35.9 per cent of the available seats in Parliament then.
“This 35 per cent quota then did not come about by accident but was created and determined by the parties to the formation of Malaysia as safeguards,” he said.
He added that the more than 30 per cent of the seats held by the three states comprised about one third of the total available seats then, and to amend the Federal Constitution (FC), it needed at least two-thirds support from the MPs.
“This is where the one-third seats held by the three states are deemed safeguards to ensure their rights are not being bulldozed or trampled upon.
“Unfortunately, after Singapore left Malaysia in 1965, all the 15 seats held by Singapore were distributed to Malaya, thus making the unbalanced scenario that we see now, of which could also mean a diminishing of Sabah and Sarawak rights in Parliament,” he said.
The Minister for Tourism, Creative Industry and Performing Arts, thus hoped the lost seats would be returned to Sabah and Sarawak.
On Mar 13, Wan Junaidi said the claims for one-third of parliamentary seats by Sabah and Sarawak were not written under the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63), Inter-Governmental Committee (IGC) Report 1962, Cobbold Commission and Federal Constitution.
He said it was only mentioned in the IGC Report that the proportion of number of seats allocated respectively to Sarawak and to North Borneo (Sabah) should be maintained.
“In 1963, the total number of seats allocated for Sarawak, Sabah and Singapore were 55 out of 159 or 34.59 per cent.
“However, Singapore exited Malaysia on Aug 7, 1965 and the vacant seats were not distributed to Sabah and Sarawak, leaving both regions at 25 per cent seats allocation.
“This is what we are trying to recover so that the proportion of parliamentary seats for Sabah and Sarawak in 1963 is maintained to 34.59 per cent or over one-third out of the total 222 seats in Parliament,” he explained.
To recover the entitled 34.59 per cent allocation of parliamentary seats, he said the matter must follow the process as contained in Article 113 of the Federal Constitution which stated that any review of or study on the number of seats or a re-delineation exercise can only be done once every eight years.
“The last re-delineation exercise for Sarawak was in 2015 and Sabah in 2017. It means for Sarawak, if we want to see the addition of parliamentary seats, it will only happen after eight years, in 2023. A study will be carried out then,” said Wan Junaidi.
