SARAWAK folk will only believe Putrajaya’s promises of restoring their rights when constitutional amendments are complete, political analysts said.

They said the people of Sarawak and Sabah have been promised many things by different prime ministers over the years but nothing came out of it.

They were referring to the long-overdue promises that include amending the Federal Constitution to restore Sabah’s and Sarawak’s status as equal partners in the Federation of Malaysia as stated in the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63).

“It has come to a point where one believes (only) when it happens,” said Sarawak-born Universiti Putra Malaysia political scientist Jayum Jawan.

He said previous prime ministers Najib Razak and Muhyiddin Yassin, and current Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob had made promises to restore Sarawak’s status in the federation and return eroded rights in exchange for political support.

Najib and Muhyiddin’s political fortune was such that they fell from power and took their promises with them.

Jawan said the Pakatan Harapan (PH) government had also failed to deliver on this promise.

He said in the run-up to the 2018 general election, PH had made many promises and when it won and formed the first non-Umno-led federal government since Malaya’s independence, many of what it promised were not carried out.

He said he doubted if Ismail could make the changes happen.

“He is leading from a position of weakness, and whose majority is wafer-thin,” he said.

“He is not even a leader of his party, Umno. He may make promises, but he may not be able to deliver as his support is not certain and firm within the federal government and in the Perikatan Nasional (PN) coalition.”

He said the bottom line is, Sarawak and Sabah will never get their eroded rights back under the current political scenario.

“Sabah and Sarawak leaders may rejoice at some concessions given to them, especially in terms of bigger budgets compared with before, but these will not involve rights that I understand them to be and grounded or listed in the Malaysia Agreement 1963,” he said.

In recent days, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Parliament and Law) Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar said the federal government is ready to amend the Federal Constitution to restore Sabah and Sarawak as equal partners in the Federation of Malaysia.

Important to get two-thirds support

Another Sarawak-born political analyst, University of Tasmania’s James Chin, said the biggest hurdle for the proposed amendments to clear is getting the mandatory two-thirds support of Parliament.

“That means they definitely need the help of the opposition PH bloc to get it to cross the line. That’s a big question mark,” he said.

“A lot of people are asking: Can they secure the two-thirds majority?”

Chin said “they are far away” from securing it.

How the bill is being worded could compound the PH’s support for it, he said, reminding of how its 2019 attempt to amend Article 1(2) – to restore the status of Sabah and Sarawak as equal partners with Malaya in the federation – failed because the wordings in the bill that was tabled had failed to meet Gabungan Parti Sarawak’s (GPS) demands.

GPS’ 18 MPs abstained, leaving it 10 votes short of a two-thirds support.

“I don’t know what the (present) final draft is, but my understanding is that it is not ready. They are still discussing the wordings,” said Chin.

“There are still a lot of uncertainties, but the biggest one is whether they can secure the two-thirds majority.”

Like Jawan, Universiti Malaya’s Awang Azman Awang Pawi similarly does not believe Ismail could do any better than his predecessors.

“I wouldn’t place my hopes too high on him (getting the amendments passed),” he said.

Awang Azman said for the proposed amendments to have a better chance of getting passed, the proposals and the draft bill should be made public in order to get feedback from the people, experts and major stakeholders.

“The issues relating to MA63 have been around for decades. They were much discussed but no definitive actions were ever taken,” he said, adding that the situation is expected to continue.

To add to the public scepticism, Voon Lee Shan, the president of the pro-independence Parti Bumi Kenyalang, has claimed time and again that MA63 is an invalid international agreement.

He said as such, no rights in the invalid agreement could be implemented, restored or reinstated.

The key amendments Wan Junaidi has disclosed are on Article 1(2) on the status of Sabah and Sarawak as equal partners in the Federation of Malaysia, Article 160(2) to redefine the meaning of the federation and Article 161A on the definition of Sarawak natives.

Wan Junaidi said he has had engagements with MPs from Barisan Nasional, Perikatan Nasional, Parti Warisan Sabah and the opposition PH bloc of PKR, DAP and Amanah, and “everybody supported” the proposed amendments.

The amendments will be tabled in the Dewan Rakyat for the first reading on October 26 with the second and third readings slated for October 28. – October 18, 2021.