Make public full report of Special Cabinet Committee on MA63, insists State PKR

Sarawak Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) repeats the call for the full report of the Special Cabinet Committee on MalaysiaAgreement1963(MA1963) to be made public and tabled in Parliament immediately.

Its information director, on behalf of Keadilan Sarawak State Leadership Council (MPN), Abun Sui Anyit said the federal government’s reluctance to disclose the latest report of the committee was disappointing.

“The Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Sabah and Sarawak Affairs) Datuk Seri Maximus Ongkili and his deputy Dato Hanifah Hajar Taib are from Sabah and Sarawak respectively. This has added to the frustration of Sabahans and Sarawakians.

“Keadilan Sarawak insists that every citizen of Sarawak and Sabah has the right to know the latest developments regarding MA1963 but the stance by the minister and his deputy in refusing to present MA1963 publicly to the peoples from Sarawak and Sabah is disappointing indeed,” he said in a statement here yesterday.

He added important matters such as MA1963 including the restoration of Sabah and Sarawak’s rights should be announced and tabled and be debated in detail in Parliament.

“With the contents of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) dated Sept 13, 2021 to include MA1963 between the federal government and Pakatan Harapan (PH), it is hoped that this will give more strength to the minister (Ongkili) to disclose the final report of the committee to the public and subsequently for approval as soon as possible in the Dewan Rakyat,” he said.

He also said looking back, on April 9, 2019 PH motioned a bill to amend(reinstate) Article 1(2) of the Federal Constitution of Malaysia as per its original version in 1963 to upgrade Sabah and Sarawak to be equal partners with Peninsular Malaysia (Federation of Malaya) but failed to gain the support of a two-third majority among the MPs which was short of 10 votes because the Gabungan Parti Sarawak’s (GPS) 19 parliamentarians at the time did not vote in favour.

He went on to say that Keadilan issued an official statement on August 14, 2020 for the MA1963 Cabinet Special Committee to present their report or final results of their consultation to the public, but there was no response from the federal government at that time.

At another time, the urgency to disclose the outcome of the Committee’s deliberations was made public, requested by PH Sabah as stated in their media statement dated Sept 25, 2021, he said.

“This clearly shows that the federal government of Barisan Nasional(BN) and their allies in Sabah and Sarawak have always underestimated the rights of Sabah and Sarawak in relation to the MA1963.

“Keadilan Sarawak realised that every time it touches and raises matters relating to MA1963, GPS MPs took a ‘deaf ear’ approach and of course no such honour was achieved for the good of Sabah and Sarawak.

“Nowadays, GPS prefers only to give their full support to the government led by the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob for the benefit of their political party as compared to the rights of Sabah and Sarawak contained in MA1963 which benefit the people of Sabah and Sarawak,” said Abun.