KUCHING, April 4 — The Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP) today said the Bill tabled today to amend Article 1(2) of the Federal Constitution is totally unacceptable to Sarawakians who want to see real change in the state’s status in the Federation of Malaysia.
Its president Datuk Dr Sim Kui Hian said the proposed amendments still maintain Sarawak’s status as one of the 13 states in Malaysia.
“What we want is for Sarawak’s status to be one of three equal partners with Malaya and Sabah in the federation,” he said when responding to the tabling of the Bill by de facto law minister Datuk Liew Vui Keong in Parliament this afternoon.
“We view the Bill as another Pakatan Harapan (PH) failure to honour the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63) and in fact, PH has just committed another ‘U-turn’ on their election promise to return Sabah and Sarawak’s status as accorded in the MA63,” he said, in reference to the promise to increase the oil and gas royalty from the present 5 to 20 per cent.
Dr Sim, who is also Sarawak’s local government and housing minister, asked why bother to table an amendment Bill when the return of Sarawak’s autonomy in healthcare and education as promised by the PH is nowhere to be found.
“Where is the amendment to Article 160 to make Malaysia a federation under the MA63, instead of the Federation of Malaya Agreement 1957?
“Where is Sarawak’s substantial entitlement to a third of national resources and a third in the house of representatives in the proposed Bill?” he asked.
He said SUPP demands the Bill to be withdrawn as its contents are against the wishes of Sarawakians.
“With such a disappointing amendment tabled by the PH government, we verily believe that the status of our state should be decided by our people in Sarawak, and not Parliament,” he said.
