AFTER a heated 7-hour session, Sarawak lawmakers late tonight unanimously agreed to adopt a motion for a “comprehensive amendment to the federal constitution”.

Forty-seven assemblymen, including nearly all Pakatan Harapan lawmakers, debated the motion tabled by Assistant Minister of Law, State-Federal Relations and Project Monitoring Sharifah Hasidah Sayeed Aman Ghazali after the lunch break.

Each were given 10 minutes to speak on the motion that called for amendments to the federal constitution “restore the status of Sarawak as a partner equal to Federation of Malaya when the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA 63) was agreed and entered into”.

They also agreed that the word “federation” referred to in the constitution is one that is established under MA63 and not under the Federation of Malaya Agreement 1957, and to safeguard the legislative and executive powers of Sarawak, the sources of revenues and special grants assigned to Sarawak and her financial autonomy.

Hasidah also circulated a list of six major provisions that she asked all Sarawak MPs and the federal government pass  in Parliament “so as to realise the objectives and to meet the expectations and aspirations of Sarawakians”.

She said the list is not exhaustive and is subject to further consideration.

Inserting the phrase “pursuant to the Malaysia Agreement 1963” to Article 1(2) and amending the definition of the federation in Article 160(2), top the list of proposal.

The Samariang assemblyman also proposed amending Article 95B that would stop Parliament from changing “the supplements of List II or List III of the 9th Schedule” without the consent of the Sarawak legislature.

Hasidah said any amendment to the federal constitution must not erode the legislative and executive powers of Sarawak or remove any of the safeguards for the special interests of Sarawak provided under MA63.

She said they should provide Sarawak with additional protections against any federal encroachment onto constitutional safeguards for the state.

“Therefore, any amendment to the federal constitution should be studied in a rational but not emotional or politically charged environment.”

On the recent failure to pass an amendment to Article 1(2) in Parliament on April 9, Hasidah expressed her dismay and disappointment that the bill was “presented with undue haste” even though the technical committee on MA63  agreed in January that such a bill would not be tabled in parliament until October. 

DAP’s Bukit Assek assemblyman Irene Chang said the bill to amend Article 1(2) on April 9 could have been drafted with more clarity.

Chang said a good bill would leave no room for ambiguity and conjecture.

She also said if the bill had been passed, the status of Malaya, Sabah and Sarawak “might still not be put to rest”.

Chang said an amendment to Article 1(2) should inject the spirit of the Malaysia Agreement.

Putrajaya’s refusal to include mention of the Malaysia Agreement in Article 1(2) was one of the reasons GPS’ 18 MPs abstained in voting on the bill, leaving Putrajaya short of 10 votes needed for a two-thirds majority to pass the amendment.

Declaring the federal constitution is factually and historically wrong, she said the federal government therefore owes the people of Sarawak an apology for failing to draft the spirit of the Malaysia Agreement into the constitution.

“Given that the spirit of Malaysia Agreement was an equal partnership, the ruling government since 1963 had failed to ensure that that was properly drafted into our federal constitution.

“Because even in the original wording of the federal constitution as at before the 1976 amendment, it had failed to clearly show that equal partnership,” Chang said. – April 30, 2019.