MA63 amendment: Wording must be correct — Jeffrey
KOTA KINABALU: STAR and Gabungan Bersatu Sabah (GBS) welcomed a Cabinet decision to amend the Federal Constitution to restore Sabah and Sarawak as equal partners to Malaya but with the corrected and updated wordings, said Datuk Dr Jeffrey Kitingan.
Jeffrey, who is the president of STAR Sabah, was responding to the Cabinet decision yesterday to amend the Federal Constitution to restore the equal status of Sabah and Sarawak to Malaya.
Jeffrey, who is also the member of parliament for Keningau and assemblyman for Tambunan, suggested that the verbiage of Article 1(2) of the Federal Constitution should not be simply repeated to be the same as that prior to the amendment in 1976, but updated to reflect the true status of Sabah and Sarawak at the moment.
“If the correct status of Sabah and Sarawak is to be reflected, it should state that Malaysia comprises (a) Malaya, consisting of 11 states; (b) Sabah consisting of six Residencies/Divisions, including Labuan, and (c) Sarawak consisting of nine Residencies (Divisions), he said.
He said by this correction and updating, the true status and size of the partners could be reflected more correctly because under each Residency/Division were administrative districts/local governments.
“This situation also applies to the states in Malaya though many of their states are even smaller than many districts in Sabah and Sarawak,” he said.
“The district of Keningau alone is bigger than the size of Kedah, Malacca and Pulau Pinang combined, yet the Interior Residency of Keningau will include the districts of Tambunan, Tenom, Nabawan (Pensiangan ) and the sub- district of Sook.
“As such, corrections of the constitutional wordings must be included in the amendment of Article 1(2) of the Federal Constitution to ensure justice to Sabah and Sarawak,” he concluded.