KOTA KINABALU – Parti Warisan Sabah leaders have started the 161E movement – #ndabolehubah, or “cannot change” – to push for the Dewan Rakyat and Sabah assembly to convene, to rectify amendments to the Malaysia Act 1963.
Speaking to The Vibes, elected representatives from the state opposition party said under Article 161E, no amendments should be made to the federal constitution after the passage of the said act without the concurrence of the state assembly and head of state.
The elected reps are Tg Kapor assemblyman Ben Chong, Merotai assemblyman Sharifuddin Hatta and Sepanggar MP Datuk Mohd Azis Jamman.
Chong also took a swipe at Sabah Deputy Chief Minister II Datuk Seri Jeffrey Kitingan over the latter’s opposition to the implementation of the Territorial Sea Act 2012.
The law sees the continuance of state borders being reduced to only three nautical miles, as they have been since the implementation of emergency rule due to racial riots in 1969.
“There was no point (for Jeffrey) to simply ask Putrajaya to return Sabah territorial waters when they are already within Wilayah Malaya,” said Chong.
This happened with the amendment by Parliament in August 1976 to downgrade Sabah and Sarawak to states in the Federation.
Chong said the federal government cannot make excuses for this amendment.
“Our researcher has gone through the Hansard in 1976 with a fine-tooth comb, and what we found really shocked us, as Putrajaya was willing to do what it did just to take control of Sabah and Sarawak’s continental shelf.
“We believe this move by Putrajaya started well before 1963. The discussion with Brunei during the formation of Malaysia is a good example – in the end, the negotiation failed.”
He said the Continental Shelf Act 1966 was passed a few months after Singapore left Malaysia in 1965.
But, the federal government used the emergency rule to reduce Sabah and Sarawak’s borders to three nautical miles despite there being no sectarian violence in both states then, he said.
Maintaining that the federal government has no authority to enforce such laws, he said the government went on to pass in Parliament the Petroleum Development Act 1974, and captured both states’ oil and gas resources.
“They did so by transferring the continental shelf to Petronas, although they should not have.
“A few weeks after the Double Six tragedy on June 6, 1976, they passed the amendment to Article 1(2) and (3). This was when the federal government made Sabah and Sarawak part of Wilayah Malaya.
“It was also when Putrajaya asserted full control over the Sabah and Sarawak continental shelf, and did whatever they pleased.”
He said amending Article 1(2) and (3) contravened Article 161E of the constitution and Annex A Part VI Section 66 of the Malaysia Act where:
“As from the passing of the Malaysia Act (which was passed by the Malayan Parliament on August 20, 1963) no amendment to the constitution made in connection with the admission to the Federation of a Borneo state…”
He said this explicitly shows that the amendment to Article 1(2) and (3) cannot be done by Putrajaya, and yet, it was supported then, as well as now, by Perikatan Nasional in Putrajaya, Kuching and Kota Kinabalu.
“We look at this as a breach of our fundamental rights, as well as the rights of the people in Sabah.
“We urge the Sabah assembly to be convened as soon as possible, to demand Parliament to rectify all amendments to the Malaysia Act 26/1963 since it was incorporated into the Malaysian constitution.” – The Vibes, April 21, 2021
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