GABUNGAN Parti Sarawak (GPS) will consider invoking Article 8 of Malaysia Agreement 1963 if ongoing discussions at the special cabinet committee to apply the terms of the agreement do not go Sarawak’s way, said lawmaker Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar.

The Santubong MP said GPS is keeping Article 8 as a last option even as some civil society groups are calling for its invocation.

Article 8 gives the three signatories of the federation of Malaysia the right to take “legislative, executive or other action as may be required” to implement the terms agreed to and recommended in the Inter-Governmental Committee (IGC) Report of 1963 if they are not implemented by express provisions in the federal constitution.

“We’ll see in six or seven months when the special cabinet committee on MA63, chaired by Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, ends its discussions,” said the PBB vice-president.

The Sarawak and Sabah chief ministers are on the committee.

Rights activists in the two states view the special committee as the last hope of Sabah and Sarawak’ for getting their status restored as equal partners in the federation.

“It was never on the table,” Wan Junaidi, said when asked if invoking Article 8 is an option for GPS to force matters to progress following the federal government’s thwarted attempt to amend the federal constitution.

The bill to amend Article 1(2) of the federal constitution to change the status of Sabah and Sarawak failed to get the required two-thirds support of parliament.

The former natural resources and environment minister said GPS MPs would not want to “pre-empt the sincerity of the people on the peninsula”.

“We don’t want to question their sincerity but at the same time give us what rightly belongs to us.

“Just don’t let down the Sabahans and Sarawakians.

“The next time they (federal government) come (with a new bill), it must reflect a little on the MA63.”

Last week, civil society groups Borneo’s Plight In Malaysia (BoPiMa), Solidariti Anak Sarawak (SAS) and Gindol Initiative for Civil Society Borneo urged the governments of Sabah and Sarawak “to decide their destiny” by invoking Article 8.

BoPiMa president Daniel John Jambun, SAS president Peter John Jaban and Gindol Initiative for Civil Society Borneo chairman Kanul Gindol said Sabah and Sarawak should bring their grouses of non-compliance of the MA63 to the federal court - sitting as the constitutional court - not parliament.

The bill to amend Article 1(2), which would restore Sabah and Sarawak’s status as equal partners in the federation of Malaysia, was defeated Tuesday night when only 138 MPs voted in support for the amendment – 10 short of the required 148 votes.

Fifty-nine abstained, including 17 from GPS and one from Parti Bersatu Sarawak (PBS).

There were 24 absentees notable among them were former prime minister Najib Razak, former deputy prime minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, former sports minister Khairy Jamaluddin, Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah (Gua Musang) and four PH MPs.

Even though it needed the votes of the GPS MPs to see the bill through, the federal government refused to accommodate their request for the words “pursuant to the Malaysia Agreement 1963” inserted in the bill.

The words, Wan Junaidi said, were to reflect the spirit of the MA63 in the federal constitution.

Sarawak PH chief and Stampin MP Chong Chieng Jen said GPS had prevented the bill from being passed because if it were, “GPS will immediately lose one of its election campaign points”.

Chong yesterday reiterated that the GPS abstention meant it had squandered the golden opportunity for Sarawak to regain its original status in MA63 in Malaysia.

“Now, because of the doing of the GPS MPs in abstaining from voting, Sarawak remains one of the 13 states in Malaysia.

“Not only has the GPS shot itself in the foot by not voting on the amendment bill, but it has also shot Sarawakians and also Sabahans in the foot,” he said. – April 15, 2019.