A GABUNGAN Parti Sarawak (GPS) coalition lawmaker is pushing for the Sarawak constitution to be amended to plug a possible loophole that could be exploited, allowing non-Sarawakians to contest in locally held elections.

Muara Tuang assemblyman Idris Buang wants the Sarawak government to amend Article 16 to clearly define that only people born in Sarawak can contest in elections to the state legislative assembly or represent the state in Parliament.

Article 16 states: “Every citizen of or over the age of 21 years who is resident in the state is qualified to be elected as an elected member of the Dewan Undangan Negri, unless he is disqualified for being such a member by the federal constitution or this constitution, or by any such law as is mentioned in Article 17.”

However, not a single non-Sarawakian has contested in the previous assembly elections.

Idris, a lawyer and the Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB) information chief, said he sees the word “resident” in the constitution as the loophole.

“There are various meaning of ‘resident’ as could be found in some English or even law dictionaries and… there is no minimum or specific length of time covering a particular stay or residency, so as to gauge a standard or an inductive meaning of the word resident under Article 16,” he said.

He said in the Merriam-Webster dictionary, for example, the definition of ‘resident’ is a person who resides in a place.

“Therefore, you can see the definition of resident in the present Article 16 of our SSC is quite loose in the sense that it might include any person who has been taking a stay or residency in the state for even a short period, say , a few months… or a year or so, may well have satisfied the requirement of the present Article 16,” he added.

Idris said he hoped the state government could consider tabling a bill to amend the constitution in the next legislative assembly because the “present Article 16 of the state constitution is rather obsolete and irrelevant to the present trend in Sarawak”.

“We cannot allow just any Tom, Dick or Harry from outside Sarawak, even if he is a Malaysian citizen, to vie for an assembly seat here.

Idris said plugging the loophole “does not mean we are scared of any outsiders”.

He said suggestions to allow Malaysians from any state to contest “do not augur well with the spirit of patriotism that the present political realisation and scenario in Sarawak demands”.

“This is especially so when the subject of “patriotism to Sarawak” took centre stage following the recent federal court decision affecting former member of Pujut (Dr Ting Tiong Choon).”

Ting was disqualified for acquiring an Australian citizenship.

“The general feeling is that Sarawak needs to be represented in the assembly as well as in Parliament by only loyal and true blue Sarawakians in every sense of the word.” – February 18, 2020.