PBB wants PM’s assurance tasks of committees will continue
KUCHING: Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu ( PBB) is hopeful that Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad will still ensure the Cabinet Steering Committee will carry on what it has been established to do in the true spirit of Malaysia.
PBB information chief Dato Idris Buang said the party also expects both the Technical and Working committees to continue their tasks as scheduled.
“Additionally, in the spirit of wanting to address the nonfulfilment of obligations of the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (with IGC recommendations annexed thereto) and the Federal Constitution, by any of the parties namely the Federated Malay States, Sabah and Sarawak, all these years since forming Malaysia, we hope that there will be a Special Select Committee of Parliament formed.
“This is in order to enhance our common efforts in getting to amicable or workable closures of antecedent or outstanding issues,” he said in a statement issued here yesterday.
Idris felt that it would be a disappointment to all Malaysians, more so the people of Sabah and Sarawak, if all the efforts to address the shortcomings in the implementation of MA63 was stalled or done in any lesser mode.
He said the rejected Constitution Bill (Amendment 2019) lacked the necessary ingredients in terms of proper wordings and substance in order to give the constitutional meaning that would place ‘equal-partner/party status’ to Sarawak, as envisaged by MA63, the IGC Report and the Cobbold Commission Report.
He said the Bill stated nothing about Sabah and Sarawak being ‘equal partners’ while MA63 was not referred to.
“The Bill could not be supported also because the interpretation of ‘ The Federation’ in Article 160 of the Federal Constitution as it is now, only refers to ‘The Federation pursuant to the Federation of Malaya Agreement 1957’, thus confusingly leaving out Sabah and Sarawak and MA63 from the equation,” he said.
“Sabah and Sarawak formed Malaysia with Malaya and Singapore purely based on Malaysia Agreement 1963. Malaysia was not formed pursuant to Federation of Malaya Agreement 1957. This is the whole point that makes the bill to amend Article 1 ( 2) on Tuesday totally useless and futile. Don’t PH ( Pakatan Harapan) politicians see this clearly?” Idris asked.
He said the anomaly in the interpretation of ‘ The Federation’ had been there since 1963, which might indicate that even the 1963 version of Article 1( 2) was not properly drafted to reflect the requirement of MA63.
He asserted that the Federal Constitution had to be reviewed in line with MA63 – holistically and once and for all.
Due to the multifaceted nature in subject-matter covered by the Federal Constitution, Idris said amendments to the Constitution could be done in stages, depending on priorities and needs of the nation, but any exercise must be done in such a way that the proposed amendments essentially be completed in form as well as substance in any particular aspect, ‘without leaving any legal ambiguity, hiatus, anomaly, vacuum or lacuna’.
“Our GPS MPs are wise, very careful and conscious of how history will eventually judge them and they want to be judged by our present and future generations as very astutely responsible leaders who fought for their needs and aspiration.
“History will tell why they could not just swallow something which was raw or half- cooked and meaningless such as the Bill on Tuesday, advanced by the PH government and viciously supported by some Sarawak PH MPs without much thought and care for the interest of Sarawak and its people,” he added.
Idris said GPS MPs had to make sure they put Sarawak first while those on the other side seemed to desperately want the Bill to be hurriedly passed, as if they were ‘really deep on a party- survival kind of mode’.
Additionally, in the spirit of wanting to address the nonfulfilment of obligations of the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (with IGC recommendations annexed thereto) and the Federal Constitution, by any of the parties namely the Federated Malay States, Sabah and Sarawak, all these years since forming Malaysia, we hope that there will be a Special Select Committee of Parliament formed. Dato Idris Buang, PBB information chief