KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 16 — Umno president Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi today said that the status of Sabah and Sarawak will “continue” to be heightened after Barisan Nasional (BN) “wins” the 15th general elections (GE15).
Touting his prediction for BN’ to “return to full power”, Zahid took the opportunity on Malaysia Day to say that the Bornean territories were Malaysia’s partners, and that the country would not have been formed without them.
“So there is an incorrect confusion that Sabah and Sarawak joined Malaysia,” he said in a Facebook post.
“Sabah and Sarawak did not join Malaysia. Instead, Sabah and Sarawak came together with the Federation of Malaya to form Malaysia.
“Current sociopolitical dynamics have seen Sabah and Sarawak now recognised as territories and no longer states after Constitution (Amendment) Act 2022 came into effect on 11 February 2022,” he added.
Zahid also pointed out that Sabah’s foreign direct investments are projected to exceed RM7 billion — which would make the state the third largest recipient of foreign investments in Malaysia — indicating Sabah and Sarawak’s great development potential.
Currently, talks are going on that Sabah and Sarawak should get 35 per cent of the seats in Malaysia’s Parliament.
On September 9, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Sabah and Sarawak Affairs) Datuk Seri Maximus Ongkili announced that a meeting of the Special Council on the Malaysia Agreement, chaired by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri, had endorsed the proposed seat increase.
However, Prime Minister’s Department (Parliament and Law) Datuk Seri Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar yesterday said that there was not enough time to implement such a seat increase before the next general election.
Nevertheless, today, DAP national chairman Lim Guan Eng said that there should be no delay in making the necessary Constitutional amendments and pledged the support of the Pakatan Harapan coalition when the time came to pass such a law change in Parliament.
