SARAWAK is holding up the enforcement of its Interpretation Ordinance – which defines who is a native of the state – as the state government is in the midst of drafting the condition and requirement qualification, the state’s de facto law minister said today.

Assistant Minister in the Premier’s Department (Law, MA63 and State-Federal Relations) Sharifah Hasidah Sayeed Aman Ghazali said the state government needs to ensure that the conditions and requirements are suitable, reasonable, practical and, more importantly, are not redundant.

She said the state government has started the process, having already directing the relevant government agencies such as the Sarawak Native Customs Council, or better known as Majlis Adat Istiadat Sarawak in Malay, the Native Courts of Sarawak and the State Secretary’s office, together with the State Attorney-General’s Chambers, to look into the matter holistically.

“Once it’s done, the draft conditions and requirements will be presented to the Majlis Mesyuarat Kerajaan Negeri (state cabinet) for approval,” she said.

The ordinance was gazetted on February 25.

Sharifah Hasidah said once the state cabinet has given its approval for implementation, the ordinance – which was passed by the state assembly on February 15 – will be gazetted for enforcement.

She was responding Ba Kelalan assemblyman Baru Bian’s recent queries on the reason for the delay in gazetting the amendment.

Baru, citing Sharifah Hasidah’s promise made at the passing of the bill where she said the “gazetting will be made within two weeks”, wants the gazetting expedited “so that the amendment to the Federal Constitution can be made effective without further delay”.

The law was to overcome problems of children of mixed marriages – between natives and non-natives – encounter in matters such as land transfers, inheritance and entry into educational institutions.

Baru said the entry of mixed-marriage children into educational institutions as natives could be because of ambiguities, confusion or “perhaps refusal of some bodies or institutions to accept the wider definition of native to include children of mixed marriages”.

To address this issue, article 161A of the Federal Constitution was amended in December 2021, defining “native” in Sarawak by reference to the definition of races considered indigenous by state law. 

In February, the Interpretation (Amendment) Bill 2022 was unanimously passed at the state legislative assembly, conferring native status to children of mixed-marriage, of which one parent is a native.

This definition gives a clearer picture that only one of the parents needs to be of an indigenous race for the child to be considered a native. – July 14, 2022.