SARAWAK is disputing Pakatan Harapan’s proposed special cabinet committee to revisit the Malaysia Agreement 1963.

Chief Minister Abang Johari said he is of the view that the committee should be modelled along the lines of the Inter-Governmental Committee, formed in 1961, to look into the formation of Malaysia.

The IGC, disbanded in 1963, was made up of representatives of the governments of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Brunei, the Federation of Malaya, North Borneo (now renamed Sabah), Sarawak and Singapore.

The then UK Minister of State for Colonial Affairs, Lord Lansdowne, was the chairman of the committee, while the Deputy Prime Minister of the Federation of Malaya, Abdul Razak, was the deputy chairman.

“It should not be a cabinet committee,” Abang Johari told reporters after opening the Borneo water and waste water exhibition and conference in Kuching today.

He also said the committee should be expanded.

He also said the ambit of the proposed changes must be explored fully.

“I appreciate the proposal to amend the constitution (but) it is better for us to look (at what is to be amended) holistically, in totality.”

The chief minister gave Article 112(D), which deals with reviews of special grants to Sabah and Sarawak, as an example.

He said the provision “has to be strengthened”.

“It must be like the IGC, to study all aspects of the constitution as well as the Malaysian Agreement.”

Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department in charge of law, Liew Vui Keong, on Monday said the working paper on the special cabinet committee and its proposed members will be submitted to the cabinet for discussion at its meeting today.

Liew said the committee will be chaired by Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad with the Chief Ministers of Sarawak and Sabah, Attorney-General Tommy Thomas and the Attorney-Generals of the two Borneo territories included as members. – October 10, 2018.