THE chief executive of the Sarawak government will no longer be called “chief minister” but “premier” if the bill to make the switch is passed by the state legislative assembly which begins its three-day special sitting today.

State Minister of Tourism, Creative Industry and Performing Arts Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah had told reporters last Thursday that the bill he will be tabling – to amend article 6(3) of the Sarawak constitution – is “interesting” and “will raise eyebrows”.

Karim, who will table the bill tomorrow, did not divulge much details.

The Malaysian Insight sighted the item in the Sarawak government gazette dated February 7.

The second and third reading will be held on the same day.

The amendment to the state constitution will also change the designation “assistant minister” for a junior minister to that of a “deputy minister”.

Karim, after attending a briefing on the proposed five-year strategic roadmap for another ministry he is helming, the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Entrepreneur Development on Thursday, said the rationale behind the redesignation from assistant to deputy was due to an incident where an assistant minister did not get appropriate  treatment while on an official mission overseas.

Karim would not say when or where but said the assistant minister was not accorded the ministerial treatment he should have because “the hosts thought he was an assistant to the minister”.

The bill also seeks to amend article 44(b) on the interpretation of “the Federation” of Malaysia.

The new wordings will be identical to the recently amended article 1(2) of the Federal Constitution which came into effect last Friday.

Five bills, including the amendments to the constitution, will be tabled in the three-days, which sitting was called to fulfil the constitutional requirement for the assembly to have its first sitting within 120 days from the date of its dissolution.

The assembly was to have been automatically dissolved on June 6 last year but the national state of emergency and the localised state of emergency meant the dissolution had to be suspended.

It was finally dissolved on November 3 when the Yang di-Pertuan Agong lifted the emergency, which paved the way for the December state elections.

The 120-day constitutional requirement is pursuant to article 21(4) of the Sarawak constitution. – February 14, 2022.