KOTA KINABALU – Sabah and Sarawak would not be on the back foot in dealing with Covid-19 had they enhanced their respective health ordinances, said a senior figure in the Borneo legal fraternity.
Sabah Law Society president Roger Chin said the legal clout for the two states are under the items on public health and prevention of diseases as listed in the concurrent list of the Ninth Schedule of the federal constitution.
The two states, which have their own health ordinances, should have passed laws to be a step ahead of the federal government in tackling the pandemic, he told an online forum, titled “Decentralising Healthcare in Post-Covid-19 Malaysia: The Scope, Advantages, Trade-offs and a Road Map”, yesterday.
“By doing this, it would mirror the federal Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases Act 1988 (Act 342) if the state wishes to have control over the concurrent list.
“Although Article 75 of the federal constitution states that the federal law shall prevail, and therefore, both state and federal laws should operate without conflict, the federal law would no longer cover Sabah and Sarawak due to the existence of a similar law.”
Chin said the reality, however, is that state health laws do not cover Covid-19, thus, are outmanoeuvred by Act 342.
Pointing out that the Sabah and Sarawak governments may have been taken by surprise by the spike in infections, he said they could have overlooked their powers in the concurrent list.
The list refers to both states, along with the federal authority, having joint stewardship.
“So, what happened was, the state government did not do anything after the country was hit by the pandemic,” said Chin.
“What the state government could have done was to straightaway pass laws regarding Covid-19 in the state assembly.
“Maybe, they did not look into this. If they had indeed approved a law to deal with Covid-19 when the federal government planned to impose its law on Sabah, it would have found that Sabah and Sarawak had already covered the deadly virus.”
All actions by the states during the health crisis complement what Putrajaya is doing to contain the coronavirus, he said.
On the decentralisation of health authority to the state, Chin said it can be done as per Article 76, which refers to Parliament agreeing to empower state governments to pass laws towards this end.
He said this is among the matters being discussed by the committee on the Malaysia Agreement 1963.
“Article 76 is always a good avenue if the federal government is agreeable to giving substantive decentralisation.
“But, it will happen only if there is political will to do so.”
Decentralisation should be done as only the state governments themselves know the problems faced by their respective states, he said.
Citing the example of federal control over education, he said schools are built in far-flung areas of Sabah and Sarawak despite there being no teacher willing to work in such places.
The situation would not arise had the state itself been in charge of making such decisions, he said. – The Vibes, June 30, 2021
