DEPUTY Sarawak Chief Minister James Masing and rights activist Lina Soo responded with cautious optimism to Putrajaya’s assurance to amend the federal constitution to restore Sabah and Sarawak’s status as equal partners in the federation.

Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Liew Vui Keong had said the amendment would be tabled in the parliament sitting to come.

Sarawak and Sabah have long sought an amendment to Article 1(2) of the federal constitution which downgraded their status from partners in the federation to merely two of 13 Malayan states.

Masing, who is the Parti Rakyat Sarawak president, said he would instruct the three PRS MPS to support the bill if it was tabled in Parliament.

“I am sure all 19 Gabungan Parti Sarawak and Sarawak Pakatan Harapan MPs will support the bill once the details are known,” he said.

State Reform Party Sarawak president Soo said while she was “eagerly waiting for Liew’s promise to materialise”, she was taking that promise with a pinch of salt.

She said she was baffled that Liew had come to Sarawak to seek support for the amendment when lawmakers on both sides of the political divide have been in accord on the return of state rights as stipulated in the Malaysia Agreement 1963.

She wondered if there was a catch to Liew’s promise.

“Are there any strings attached?” she said.

“Why come to Sarawak first to convince the 19 (GPS) MPs but not (the MPs) in Malaya or Sabah?”

Soo, who has done her homework on the hansard, said her scrutiny of the 1976 Hansard on Act 354 Section 2, had found that the then administration of Hussein Onn managed to pass “a bundle of 100 amendments” en bloc, and all the MPs had consented to Article 1(2) without debate or objection.

“If the process then could be passed in one parliamentary session, why does it now require time to reverse it?”

Sarawak and Sabah are also demanding the repeal of the Petroleum Development Act 1974 and the Territorial Sea Act 2012 or an amendment to exempt the two states from the laws.

The two states have from the start claimed that the two laws gave Malaya licence to plunder their oil and gas resources. Sarawak had said the acts were not enforceable as they was never ratified by the state legislative assembly,

GPS chief whip in Parliament, Petra Jaya MP Fadillah Yusof, had earlier given his conditional support to Putrajaya.

He said while GPS MPs support “what is good for the state, for the people of Sarawak”, they need to see details of the amendment first.

He said the focus of the amendment should be on the return of the states’ rights.

Assistant Sarawak Minister for Law, State and Federal Relations Sharifah Hasidah Sayeed Aman Ghazali agreed.

“We have to look at the proposal they will submit,” he said.

“In principle, if it is good for Sarawak, good for Sabah, and good for Malaysia, we are all for it.” – October 10, 2018.