KUCHING: The renaming of the chief minister’s post as premier is merely a name change without the devolution of more federal powers to Sarawak under the Federal List.
A Sarawak lawyer, Simon Siah, said although this was a beginning to differentiate Sarawak’s status from the other states, more has to be done.
“I agree that this is the beginning but the path ahead is still not very clear…,” he said.
“Currently, there is no difference other than the change in the name or term to address the head of Sarawak government,” he told New Sarawak Tribune when contacted.
“Thus, we need to know what the Sarawak government intends to do next and what we can expect to happen – following the restyling of the term.”
Siah said only with the devolution of more powers from the federal government to Sarawak, could such changes truly benefit Sarawak and its people.
He said some of the powers which several non-governmental organisations (NGOs) had been fighting for was to have more autonomy given to the National Registration Department (JPN) in Sarawak to speed up and resolve the stateless issues affecting children in the state.
“Our Women, Childhood and Community Wellbeing Development Minister Datuk Seri Fatimah Abdullah has done well by forming the Task Force on Stateless Children but her taskforce can only recommend to the Home Ministry where some recommended applications were rejected as well,” he said.
Apart from that, Siah said Sarawak should be given powers to collect taxes paid locally as well as have its own powers on matters of education and healthcare.
“However, all these will require more studies as each devolution of power will no doubt incur expenses. And where will the state government generate such income?” he said.
In addition, he said, the Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka (DBP) probably had to add in the word and definition of “Premier” in their latest Kamus Dewan because the ‘Premier of Sarawak’ in English is referred as ‘Premier Sarawak’ in Bahasa Malaysia.
On March 1, the term of Sarawak’s Chief Minister became officially known as the Premier of Sarawak after the constitutional amendment to rename the term was gazetted and came into effect.
In this connection, the deputy chief minister will be referred to as deputy premier (timbalan premier) and assistant minister as deputy minister (timbalan menteri) with effect from the same date,” he said.
The Constitution of the State of Sarawak (Amendment) Bill to rename Chief Minister as Premier and assistant ministers as deputy ministers was tabled in the state assembly on Feb 15.
It was passed with more than a two-thirds majority, with 67 assemblymen voting in favour, while six Opposition members opposed.
When tabling the Bill, Tourism, Creative Industry and Performing Arts Minister Datuk Seri Abdul Karim Hamzah said renaming the Chief Minister to Premier would correctly reflect Sarawak’s status as different from the other states.
He said this would give full effect to the recent Federal Constitution amendments which restored Sarawak’s rights and status as one of the entities that formed the Federation of Malaysia under the Malaysia Agreement 1963.
