KUCHING: The constitutional amendment to rename the Sarawak chief minister’s post as “Premier” will put Sarawak in the right perspective, said Datuk Seri Abdul Karim Hamzah.
While stating that the amending Article 6(3) of the Constitution is a good Bill, he believes that it is also what Sarawakians wanted as well.
“Although there are no significant changes (changing from Chief Minister to Premier), it is the right term for it.
“Taking Assistant Ministers title for example, when they go overseas, they are seen and treated as the Ministers’ assistant when they should not be. Hence, they should be called Deputy Ministers instead so that everybody would know and they would not be confused,” he shared.
He said this when met by the reporters at DUN Complex after the oath taking ceremony on Monday (Feb 14).
Adding on, he stated that using the title “Chief Minister” is similar to putting Sarawak on par with other Malayan states such as Penang or Melaka.
“I don’t think we want that. When Malaysia was formed, there was only one representing the signatories for the federated and unfederated Malay state.
“So once Malaysia was formed, things have changed, don’t tell me we should be on the same par,” he reiterated.
Meanwhile, commenting on the Bill that he was going to table, he disclosed that the Bill is geared towards handling more autonomy and that such was what has been fought for for all these years.
“The reason why we went to London is to study more on Inter-Governmental Committee (IGC) and Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63) is so that we know there have been some rights that have been eroded.
“These are just parts and parcels of all those little things we are slowly trying to get back,” he said.
Furthermore, he stated that there is no pressure applied on Putrajaya from the State.
“We are just fine tuning what should happen when we form Malaysia because when Malaysia was formed, Sabah and Sarawak seem to be diluted and become similar to any other small states that are in Malaya,” he pointed out.
