‘Sabahan, S’wakian federal ministers should have rejected amendment’

KUCHING: Sabahan and Sarawakian ministers in the federal cabinet should have rejected the proposed amendment to Article 1( 2) of the Federal Constitution before the Bill went through its first reading in Parliament on Thursday, said Michael Tiang.

In asserting this yesterday, the Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP) Youth chief said Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Liew Vui Keong, Works Minister Baru Bian, and Deputy Minister of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Chong Chieng Jen ought to have been the first East Malaysians to object to the amendment Bill.

“They should have rejected the Bill when it was submitted to the (federal) cabinet for approval. Liew, Baru, and Chong should have been the first barriers in cabinet to reject the Bill. They should have said ‘ no’ to the Bill because they need to come back to face the people,” he told a press conference yesterday.

On whether Liew, Baru, and Chong had betrayed Sabah and Sarawak, Tiang replied, “Not yet. Come the voting, there will be some truth revealed. The Parliament’s Hansard is a permanent record.”

The political secretary to the chief minister said the vote scheduled for Tuesday would reveal ‘ who defends or sells off Sabah and Sarawak’.

“This is no joke. I hope they will think twice before they vote,” he said.

Tiang said objecting to the amendment Bill was the right thing for Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) members of parliament to do given that the proposed amendment would still leave Sabah and Sarawak as among the 13 states in Malaysia. He stressed this was not in the original spirit of the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63). He pointed out that the Malayan states were not signatories of MA63 and it would make no sense for Sabah and Sarawak, who inked the agreement with the Federation of Malaya in 1963, to be labelled as among the 13 states in Malaysia.

“It does not matter how (the Pakatan Harapan government) puts it, it is still 11 plus two – 13 states; Sabah and Sarawak would still be on par with those 11 states in Malaysia,” he said.

Tiang said he was puzzled by Chong’s appeal to Sarawakians to accept the amendment Bill as well as the Democratic Action Party lawmaker’s statement that eroded rights would be returned to Sabah and Sarawak later.

“Status and rights are together. You cannot assert your rights without equal status. Status and rights go side by side. How can you have a lower status and assert your rights as an equal partner in Malaysia?” Tiang asked.

He opined that the Pakatan Harapan ( PH) government had underestimated Sarawakians when it came to the reading of the amendment Bill.

“We are angry because they ( PH) still see us like what we were in 1963, that we don’t know how to read the Bill. Sarawakians are very disappointed with the Bill. We think that we have been insulted through and through. There will be a moment of truth when a lot of MPs participate in the debate after the second reading of this Bill because we will see who will safeguard or sell off Sarawak and Sabah,” he said.

He urged GPS MPs not to support the Bill, saying they should back the call for a Parliamentary Select Committee ( PSC) to be formed to study the proposed amendment before it is tabled and debated in Parliament. He insisted that the Bill ‘is not acceptable among Sarawakians and this is not what we have been demanding for’.

“This is not what we were promised in 1963 when there were only three ( sic) partners. This amendment is a trap,” added Tiang.