Dr Yii: PH govt has no intention to remove immigration autonomy enjoyed by Sabah, S’wak
KUCHING: The Pakatan Harapan (PH) government has no intention to remove the immigration autonomy currently enjoyed by Sabah and Sarawak or any legal rights that are enshrined both in Malaysia Agreement 1963 ( MA63) and the Federal Constitution.
In fact, it had always acknowledged and respected the special autonomy given to Sabah and Sarawak, said Bandar Kuching MP Dr Kelvin Yii.
When giving the assurance yesterday, Dr Yii also urged Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) to ‘stop making fairy tales’.
Dr Yii was responding to a recent statement by Petra Jaya MP Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof on such claim.
Dr Yii regretted that a senior politician and former federal minister would resort to ‘fairy tale’ in order to paint a misleading and negative picture of the federal government.
“Our immigration autonomy is well guarded and cannot be tampered with, let alone eroded or taken away. Yet, GPS is playing up this issue, knowing that this sentiment is an emotional one as it is close to our hearts,” he said.
“The ploy by GPS is not new, and it is worse than scaremongering; it is downright immoral and an outright lie to the voters,” he claimed, adding the PH government had shown its sincerity time and time again to honour and recognise the special status of Sabah and Sarawak in the Federation.
Dr Yii said this was shown again recently by the tabling of the amendment of Article 1(2) in Parliament to restore the rightful status and to correct the historical injustice against Sabah and Sarawak.
“The fact that this was the first constitutional amendment under the new federal government shows the special interest that is given to Sabah and Sarawak under the Federation.”
The intention was to amend first the core Article that would make Sarawak one of three entities on the night of April 9, but due to political agenda and interest, GPS chose to let Sarawak remain as one of the 13 states, Dr Yii claimed.
On top of that, the PH government had set up a high-level bipartisan Special Cabinet Committee on MA63 which does not only involve politicians from both sides of the divide, but also academicians and legal minds that will examine and identify the necessary legal rectifications needed to restore Sarawak’s rights under the MA63, he said.
He also said other rights like proceeds of taxations, oil and gas royalties, healthcare, education and special grants are currently in discussion at the Special Cabinet Committee, of which the Chief Minister and others in the state government are members.
“This is a high-level bipartisan committee, by Fadillah’s own admission, closed-door negotiations by the federal leadership, led at that time by YB Nancy Shukri.
“After all the years of negotiations, all that was achieved were some administrative devolution of powers. Chief Minister (Datuk Patinggi) Abang Johari (Tun Openg) himself in a news report on Nov 30, 2017 was quoted admitting that ‘technical committee on the devolution of authority, co-chaired by YB Nancy Shukri and YB Anifah Aman, was powerless,” said Dr Yii.
In comparison, in less than a year, he said the PH government has attempted to address the core issue of Sarawak’s rightful status and the Special Cabinet Committee will also produce its report soon on all the different core issues, including the review of special grants to Sarawak under Article 112(d) of the Constitution.
The PH government has time and time again shown their sincerity to address the historical grievances and economic injustice to Sabah and Sarawak that were caused during the previous administration, he added.
“So YB Fadillah should not resort to ‘ fairy tales’ to create a false impression, but rather take responsibility of the role he played as part of the previous administration on the erosion of our rights. Fact of the matter is, he was not just an MP but also a deputy minister when the Territorial Sea Act 2012, among others, was passed in parliament, further eroding our rights to our natural resources,” said Dr Yii.