KUCHING: Sarawak Pakatan Harapan (PH) chairman, Chong Chieng Jen, said it was Barisan Nasional (BN) that tabled and approved the 1976 federal constitutional amendment which reduced Sarawak’s status to “one of the 13 states” in Malaysia.
He said the 1976 constitutional amendment was supported by the Sarawak parties, Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB) and Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP).
“Though PBB and SUPP have quit BN and now call themselves GPS (Gabungan Parti Sarawak), history still records that they had supported it.
“It is now the PH government that restores the rightful position of Sarawak as ‘equal partner’ status,” Chong, who is also Sarawak DAP chairman, told a news conference, here, today.
The proposal to restore the original status of Sarawak and Sabah as enshrined in the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63) is expected to be the focus of the first meeting of the second session of the 14th Parliament which starts tomorrow.
This follows an announcement by Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Liew Vui Keong, who on Friday, said the government at a cabinet meeting on Wednesday, agreed to amend Article 1 (2) of the Federal Constitution for this purpose.
Meanwhile, Chong who is also Deputy Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Minister, said within one year of becoming the federal government, the PH government agreed to return to Sarawak what the BN government had taken away from it since 1976 (for 43 years).
“Despite years of objection to the diminished status of Sarawak, the BN government did nothing. The PBB and SUPP then just played along with Najib (former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak) in promising the sky but delivering nothing on Sarawak’s ‘equal partner’ status,” he said.
In the original Federal Constitution at the formation of Malaysia, Sarawak was one of the four territories which formed Malaysia. Singapore subsequently seceded from Malaysia, leaving Sarawak as one of the three territories in the Federation of Malaysia.
In 1976, the BN government passed the constitutional amendment, reducing Sarawak’s status from “one of the territories” to “one of the 13 states”. – Bernama
