WHEN and whether constitutional amendments to restore the position of the Bornean states will be tabled in Parliament again depends on debates in the Sarawak state assembly, says Liew Vui Keong.

“We’ll see what happens tomorrow,” Liew said after he met with Sarawak Chief Minister Abang Johari Openg at his office in Petra Jaya today.

“We want to see what the legislative assembly says. These are the voices of the people.”

The federal government on April 9 failed in its attempt to amend Article 1(2) of the federal constitution to restore the position of Sabah and Sarawak in the federation.

The ruling Pakatan Harapan government did not secure the required two-thirds majority, or the support of 148 of the 222 MPs, to amend the constitution.

Only 138 MPs supported the bill, while Gabungan Parti Sarawak’s (GPS) 18 MPs and one GPS-friendly MP from Parti Bersatu Sarawak abstained from voting after their demands to insert six “magic words” to the proposed amendment were not met.

The six words were “pursuant to the Malaysia Agreement 1963”.

The demand for the insertion of the words in the amendment bill was stated in a letter a day before the voting.

Sarawak Law, State-Federal Relations and Project Monitoring Assistant Minister Sharifah Hasidah Sayeed Aman Ghazali will be tabling a motion to debate the MA63 and the constitutional amendment that failed to pass in Parliament.

PH’s Pujut assemblyman Ting Tiong Choon will similarly table a private motion on the same issue.

Liew, who described his meeting with the Sarawak chief minister as “fruitful”, said they had a lengthy discussion on “matters that are close to the heart of Sarawakians.”

He also assured that he would look into the various issues brought up by Sarawak on the MA63.

“The chief minister is very passionate about it and he wants to ensure the rights of Sarawakians and Sabahans as well, well preserved

Liew also denied there is a split between Sarawak and Sabah over how the reinstatement of the eroded right should be dealt with.

“I don’t think we have any disagreements on all that,” he said

But Liew said they do have disagreements on interpretation of certain provisions of the federal constitution.

“At the end of the day, we have to leave them to the constitutional experts.” – April 29, 2019.