KUALA LUMPUR, April 19 — The first deputy prime minister from Borneo since Malaysia’s founding in 1963, Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof maintains that it is necessary for Sabah and Sarawak to have 35 per cent of the 222 seats in the Dewan Rakyat.

The chairman of the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63) Implementation Action Council told news portal Malaysiakini that the 35 per cent rule is to safeguard the rights of resource-rich Sabah and Sarawak, as laid out in the Federal Constitution.

"But right now, if seats in peninsular Malaysia are more than two-thirds, they can vote and remove all the rights accorded to Sabah and Sarawak,” he was quoted as saying in an interview published today.

He explained that the ongoing push to return to the 35 per cent rule dates back to Malaysia’s founding.

Back then, Sabah, Sarawak, and Singapore were allocated 35 per cent of the seats in the MA63 to ensure that any amendments to the Federal Constitution would require the approval of the three states.

When Singapore was expelled from the federation in 1965, the percentage of seats for Sabah and Sarawak did not change.

Instead, the surplus was absorbed by the peninsula instead of Sabah and Sarawak which resulted in the two states holding 25 per cent of the parliamentary seats till today.

Fadillah who has been Petra Jaya MP since 2004 said development-wise, his home state and Sabah still trail the peninsula in many ways even to today.

"You have everything in the peninsula. You have highways and bridges. All the facilities are there.

"Yet, Sabah and Sarawak are left behind when, in fact, economy-wise we have contributed so much,” he told the news portal when commenting about the argument that East Malaysia only constitutes one-sixth of Malaysia’s population and should not control one-third of Parliament.

Fadillah, who is also federal minister of plantation and commodities, said argument about "fairness” needed to put in context the "spirit behind the formation of Malaysia”.

Fadillah told the news portal that the first major achievement the MA63 action council he leads made was in persuading the federal government to increase its annual special grants to Sabah and Sarawak to RM260 million and RM300 million respectively for the ensuing five years, a significant increase from RM26 million and RM16 million.

Under Article 112D of the Federal Constitution, the two Borneo states are entitled to annual grants which are supposed to be reviewed every five years.

Fadillah said the Sarawak government considers this as an "interim payment” pending the outcome of negotiations with the federal Finance Ministry.

"My responsibility is to get the Finance Ministry and the state government to sit down and come to an agreement,” he was quoted as saying, referring to his position as head of the MA63 action council.

Fadillah told the news portal that the other priority of the action council was to bring the administrative powers related to education and health back to East Malaysia.

He claimed that decades of centralised planning in Putrajaya have caused an imbalance of resources, resulting in Sabah and Sarawak being inferior to their counterparts in the peninsula in terms of resource allocation.

"For example, in terms of human resources, when there is a vacancy in Sabah and Sarawak, the processing will be done in Kuala Lumpur.

"When someone is offered a job in Sabah and Sarawak, they will usually appeal because they do not want to serve in the remote areas.

"So the post is filled, yet there's nobody there. If it was handled by Sarawak, the applicants will know there is no choice. They must go to Sarawak and serve,” he was quoted as saying, referring to the recruitment process.