VOTERS in Borneo must do their bit to give Pakatan Harapan a two-thirds majority in GE14 if they want to repeal existing federal laws that violate Sabah and Sarawak’s rights under the Malaysia Agreement 1963, DAP parliamentary leader Lim Kit Siang said last night.

He said 40 seats from Borneo will give the PH government a clear majority in Parliament and enable the coalition to give them the “new deal” they craved for.

Lim was addressing an enthusiastic crowd who braved an evening thunderstorm to attend a ceramah by PH leaders at Sarawak’s first “New deal, new hope” gathering in the DAP parliamentary stronghold of Stampin in Kuching.

A total of 56 seats are up for grabs from the two Borneo states – 31 in Sarawak and 25 in Sabah.

Lim had earlier written in his blog about a 10 and 5 formula, where a swing of 10% against the ruling Barisan Nasional by Malay voters and a swing of 5% by non-Malay voters would be sufficient to enable PH to win 113 out of 165 parliamentary seats – or 68% of seats – in the peninsula.

He said if Borneo voters could deliver 40 seats to PH, the coalition would then have a total of 153, more than the 149 seats in the 222-seat Parliament needed to attain a two-thirds majority.

Lim said: “113 not good enough if we want the new deal.”

Activists and opposition politicians in Sabah and Sarawak have long slammed federal laws they deem to be in violation of the MA63, the agreement inked as the basis for the formation of Malaysia in 1963.

Lim said yesterday the PH government would repeal at least two of such laws – the Continental Shelf Act 1966 and the Petroleum Development Act of 1974.

Sarawak and Sabah have long argued that the Continental Shelf Act forced the two states to surrender their right to the 200-mile limit of the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) to the federal government, giving Putrajaya the rights to plunder their oil and gas riches.

The act also reduced the two states’ sea boundaries from 12 miles to three, meaning Sabah and Sarawak are now only entitled to explore oil and gas and other natural resources within the 4.8km limit from the shore.

The oil and gas revenue from the 322km limit goes to the federal government, while revenue from the 4.8km limit goes to the state governments.

There are no major oil and gas fields in the 4.8km limit or onshore in either Sarawak or Sabah.

The two states have also said making changes to the sea boundary violated MA63, a claim backed by Sarawak’s team of legal researchers following a recent trip to London.

Earlier, PH chairman Dr Mahathir Mohamad told the crowd that federal governments before and after him have used Parliament, where lawmakers from the peninsula are the majority, to bulldoze over key points in the MA63.

Legislations are “debated and passed without any consideration for the feelings” of the people of Sabah and Sarawak, said Dr Mahathir, who was speaking for the first time in Kuching as the head of the opposition.

“We are ruled by Parliament, where MPs from Malaya far outnumber those from Sarawak and Sabah,” he said.

In the last general election, Sarawak BN won 25 of the 31 seats while the Sabah BN won 22 of the 25 seats.

Lim said he is optimistic that voters in Sarawak and Sabah could deliver the seats.

“Sarawak will no longer be the fixed deposit for BN but the key for change for PH,” he said in reference to Sarawak and Sabah BN continually winning nearly all the 56 seats to shore up a declining support for BN in the peninsula.

Lim also dismissed Prime Minister Najib Razak’s mocking of the relationship between parties in the opposition pact.

Najib yesterday called it not only a joke but also a marriage of convenience formed based on Niccolo Machiavelli’s “the end justifies the means” philosophy.

Najib also said he believed Dr Mahathir dreams one dream, Lim another, and Anwar Ibrahim yet another.

“He’s wrong,” Lim said.

“We all have the same dream, that is to topple Najib, to remove Umno and to sack the BN government.” – September 25, 2017.