KOTA KINABALU – A special assembly sitting ahead of the constitutional amendment to align provisions of the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63) should be held, said Datuk Seri Jeffrey Kitingan.
Sabah Star’s request comes after Kadamaian assemblyman Datuk Ewon Benedick proposed the same measure on October 12.
Kitingan said that the special sitting is to resolve the words that will be used in Article 1 (2) and Article 160 (2) of the federal constitution.
The party president said that the words in the proposed constitutional amendments should also be agreed upon by both Sabah and Sarawak, and their respective legislative assemblies, not just between federal ministers.
The bill to amend the provisions in the constitution is expected to be tabled next Tuesday.
“It does not matter that the federal ministers are Sabahans or Sarawakians.
“The reality is that as long as they are federal ministers, they represent the federal government, not the Sabah or Sarawak government.
“On the contrary, the Sabah and Sarawak legislative assemblies represent Sabahans and Sarawakians respectively.
“Any decision made by Parliament that affects the Bornean states without the consent of the governments of Sabah and Sarawak will be illegitimate,” he said in a statement here today.
Kitingan, who is also Sabah deputy chief minister, maintained that the current proposed wordings in the amendments will create more ambiguities, potentially opening it to different interpretations, depending on what one believes.
He insisted that only after the Sabah assembly has debated and unanimously decided on the proper wordings to be used, then only can the decision be conveyed to Parliament and the federal government.
“Furthermore, we don’t want these amendments to be merely cosmetic changes when in reality, Sabah and Sarawak are still not treated as equal partners in this partnership.
“Don’t forget many issues concerning Malaysia and the MA63 remain unresolved.
“For example, the agreement’s wordings have led some to believe that Sabah and Sarawak become parts of Malaya as per Article 1 of the agreement, which stated that Sabah and Sarawak are federated with the existing states of the Federation of Malaya, making us states number 12 and 13 of Malaya.
“In the end, what we see is Malaya changing its name to Malaysia and expanding its borders to include Sabah and Sarawak.
“That is not the aspiration of Malaysia, and it is not what our forefathers hoped for when they first agreed to this,” he said.
Kitingan said that in contrast to MA63, the Proclamation of Malaysia on September 16, 1963, which completed the process of Malaysia’s formation, stated that Sabah and Sarawak (and Singapore) were federated with the Federation of Malaya.
“All I want to say is that going back to MA63 is going backwards. Why not proceed in accordance with the Proclamation of Malaysia when Sabah and Sarawak statuses have changed from colonies to nation states?” he asked.
He suggested that his proposal be tabled in the special sitting to be debated and resolved by all assemblymen.
“Whatever the outcome of the sitting, it will be the official position of Sabah in any amendment to the federal constitution affecting the Bornean states,” he said. – The Vibes, October 24, 2021
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