‘Let Sarawak MPs view draft of Article 1(2) amendment’
KUCHING: Sarawak members of parliament ought to be provided with the draft of the proposed amendment to Article 1( 2) of the Federal Constitution to allow them ample time to study it before it is tabled in Parliament.
Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu ( PBB) information chief Dato Idris Buang said he fully agreed with Batang Sadong MP Datuk Seri Nancy Shu kr it hat there was no need to rush the amendment through during the current Parliament sitting, and that Sarawak MPs must sight the draft first.
“This is important and crucial because our MPs need to see whether such proposed amendment or amendments would ensue any ancillary, incidental or consequential or further amendments to the Federal Constitution, taking into consideration that there are multifarious rights of Sarawak under the Malaysia Agreement 1963 ( MA63) as a whole, that had and have been eroded and now need to be restored.
“A single, simplistic amendment to Article 1( 2) , even to put the original pre-1976 wordings back, would serve no point at all for Sarawak and Sabah,” he said in a press statement yesterday.
According to him, there are many other equally vital parts of MA63 and the Constitution itself that had yet to be properly addressed by the Steering Commit tee and Technical Committee.
He said issues that are still being discussed range from financial reviews of Special Grant, Capitation Grant, right to Stamp Duties, retention of part of taxes collected, equitable distribution of parliamentary seats, devolution of powers, as well as funding on health and education, among others.
“There are also matters which are not readily agreeable but need consensual solution or mode to resolve them, and these relate to our permanent sovereignty and ownership of our natural resources such as oil and gas, oilfields, continental shelf and more.
“Surely such items which pertain to land, continental shelf, seas and subsoils are not negotiable as far as we are concerned,” he stressed.
Idris said merely restoring equal status under the amended Article 1( 2) without addressing the other parts of MA63 would be akin to ‘giving us the body of a car without the engine and other important parts’.
“We must have all our eroded rights honestly packaged in and addressed along with any other the proposed amendment, within the spirit of MA63 and the IGC ( Inter- Governmental Committee) recommendations referred thereto.”
Idris, however, said he is confident Sarawak MPs would exercise their utmost care and wisdom in detailing their points on the face of the Bill, to ensure that Sarawak gets what it ‘legally and morally deserves’ under MA63 and the Constitution.
He went on to state that with or without the amendment to Article 1(2), Sarawak’s special rights and status are already entrenched in MA63, and that no amendment to the Federal Constitution can change them because MA63 is an international agreement which could only be dealt with in whatever way by the parties to the said Agreement, namely the United Kingdom, Sarawak, Sabah and even Singapore.
The first reading of the Bill to amend Article 1( 2) of the Federal Constitution is expected to be tabled in Parliament this week, while the second reading is scheduled to take place next week.