FORMER DAP assemblyman Wong King Wei surprised the Sarawak state assembly when he tore into his former party chief and colleagues, accusing them of misinterpreting and twisting the real facts of the proposed amendments to the state constitution.

The Padungan rep said the claims made by state DAP chairman and reps Chong Chieng Jen (Kota Sentosa) and Violet Yong (Pending) that the ruling coalition Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) was selling out Sarawakians’ rights was “incorrect, untruthful and entirely misleading”.

Wong on July 26 announced he had quit DAP and politics, and declared he has no intention to defend his seat in the forthcoming state election.

The bill, tabled by state Tourism, Arts and Culture Minister Abdul Karim Hamzah yesterday, was to lower the age qualification of persons to be elected as a member of the assembly from 21 to 18 and to amend Article 16 to give a tighter definition on the qualification of persons to be elected.

Article 16’s current definition “resident in the state” is deemed to be loose and ambiguous, leaving it to many different interpretations.

The bill proposed an amendment to the definition of “resident in the state” be tied up with section 71 of the Immigration Act 1959/63.

But section 71 states that a person who holds a permanent residency permit for two years could be “treated as belonging to East Malaysian state as provided in the Immigration Act”.

It was this short two-year period that the opposition latched on to oppose the bill as not being strong enough to keep non-Sarawak citizens out from the legislature.

Chong spoke on the bill but Yong took to Facebook to post her claim that “both DAP and PSB assemblymen had successfully blocked the GPS government in passing the amendment of the Sarawak constitution in allowing West Malaysians and Sabahans to be elected into Sarawak state legislative council”.

“GPS is trying to sell out the last bastion of Sarawak rights. What a #$&@%//,” she posted.

The Parti Sarawak Bersatu assemblyman she was referring to was its president Wong Sook Koh.

Wong said from his interpretation of the proposed amendment, the GPS government was “in no way trying to sell out the rights of Sarawakians or to open up the qualification to all”.

He said in truth, an effort was made to make clearer the meaning of “resident to the state” with the effect to narrow down, not open up, the ambit and scope of person to be qualified to be a member of Sarawak legislature.

Wong said it was his duty “to my fellow Sarawakians to reveal the proper understanding and truth” and defend the truth on the proposed amendments to Article 16

Speaker Mohd Asfia Awang Nassar moved the bill to another date to be fixed, to ratify “a drafting anomaly” after Chong, in his debate earlier, had asked where the new clause on the amendment would be inserted. – November 11, 2020.