Sabah, Sarawak should move towards ‘one-third veto power’ — SAPP
KOTA KINABALU: The federal government is in the midst of gaining a two-thirds majority in parliament with the massive Umno members of parliament quitting the party and show of support to the ruling coalition.
“Is this a sign that Sabah and Sarawak are getting closer to regain their autonomy respectively, or the opposite?” questioned Gee Tien Siong, vice president of Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP).
Gee said even the Sabah coalition government had gained two-thirds majority in the State Legislative Assembly.
“The Sabah government should therefore express its stand on returning Sabah’s rights as an equal partner in Malaysia under Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63).”
He stressed that it is the time for the federal government to return Sabah and Sarawak to retain “onethird veto power” respectively in the parliamentarians block.
The one-third seats in Parliament was part of constitutional safeguards for both states listed in the InterGovernmental Committee (IGC) report that were the documents of the nation’s founding.
“If Sabah and Sarawak’s rights and status are not returned, even if the government may control two-thirds majority in both parliament and state legislative assembly, it’ll be as an extension of BN-Umno era, dubbed BN 2.0” said Gee.
“This is only showing ‘two parties one system’, which is not fair to both the resources rich states.”
“Sabah and Sarawak will again risk remaining backward, impoverished and lack of development in many aspects as compared to Malaya,” Gee said in a statement yesterday.