KUCHING, Sept 12 — A Sarawak rights advocate today called for a restructuring of Parliament to better provide constitutional protection for Borneo Malaysia under the Malaysia Agreement 1963.
Peter John Jaban said the restructuring would be more effective compared to allocating 35 per cent of seats in Dewan Rakyat to Sarawak and Sabah.
“It is against the principle of democracy for the Special Council on Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63) to agree to allocate 35 per cent of the parliamentary seats to the two territories that have a combined 20 per cent of the country’s total population,” he said in a statement.
Jaban said the constitutional protection for the two Borneo territories should instead be achieved through a total restructuring of Parliament where each partner should be given full power to veto any legislation which threatens the future unity and harmony of the nation.
Jaban, who is a former head of the Sarawak chapter of electoral watchdog, Malaysians for Free and Fair Elections, stressed that the original aims of MA63 were to ensure proper integration of peninsular Malaysia, Sabah and Sarawak within the federation.
“There should be no situation in which Malaya can impose its will or its identity onto the fundamental character of the nation as a whole,” he said, using the old name for the peninsula.
He added that the country needs a system in which the constitution is an equal reflection of all the country’s component partners.
“The question before us, one year away from our 60th anniversary, is how we can achieve that goal in today’s context, while righting any genuine imbalances.
“On the one hand, we cannot continue to allow the peninsula to hold such sway, which has seen numerous unfair constitutional changes over the last decades, detrimental to the position of the Borneo territories,” Jaban said.
He also said Sabah and Sarawak should also not be allowed a disproportionate influence in a properly functioning democracy.
He claimed many constitutional changes over the last 60 years have subverted the spirit of MA63, adding that Sarawakians are grateful that the state Premier Tan Sri Abang Johari Openg and the special council on MA63 are working towards better constitutional protection for the two Borneo territories.
Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Sabah and Sarawak Affairs) Datuk Seri Maximus Ongkili was reported recently as saying that the special council on MA63 meeting had endorsed the move of restoring 35 per cent of the 222 Parliamentary seats for Sabah and Sarawak.
The endorsement would enable Sabah and Sarawak to have 78 of the 222 seats in the Dewan Rakyat.
Abang Johari, responding to Ongkili’s statement, had asserted that the insistence to have a one-third or 35 per cent of the combined number of seats in Parliament for Sarawak and Sabah was to safeguard their interest against any power-crazy federal leaders.
