KUCHING: Datuk Seri Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah has stressed the importance of allocating one-third, or 35 per cent, of parliamentary seats to Sarawak and Sabah to protect the rights of the two states within the Malaysian federation.
The Minister of Tourism, Creative Industry, and Performing Arts said this principle was in line with the intentions of Malaysia’s forefathers when the country was formed in 1963 and is consistent with the spirit of the Federal Constitution.
He was responding to several legal experts who opined that there are no explicit constitutional provisions for Sarawak and Sabah to be granted one-third of the seats in Parliament.
“The Federal Constitution is essentially the ‘bible’ on how Malaysia is governed.
“However, it can only be amended with a two-thirds majority in Parliament, which indicates how thoughtfully it was crafted,” he said.
He made these remarks during a press conference after officiating at the Seventh International Conference on Rural Development and Entrepreneurship (ICORE 2024) at the Waterfront Hotel here, today.
Abdul Karim highlighted that the vision of Malaysia’s founding fathers should be respected when addressing the Borneo states’ request for 35 percent representation in Parliament.
“When Malaysia was first formed, the combined number of MPs from Sarawak, Sabah, and Singapore accounted for more than one-third of Parliament. After Singapore left in 1965, the 15 seats they held should have been allocated to Sarawak and Sabah. However, they were instead given to Peninsular Malaysia.”
This shift, he argued, allows Malaya to maintain a more than two-thirds majority in Parliament, enabling them to push through constitutional amendments, even those affecting the rights of Sarawak and Sabah — something Abdul Karim said was not in line with the original vision of Malaysia’s founding leaders.
He reiterated that protecting the rights of the Borneo states must be paramount.
“Any redrawing of constituencies must ensure that Sarawak and Sabah retain one-third representation in Parliament, safeguarding their constitutional rights from being eroded,” he added.
Recently, constitutional expert Professor Dr. Nik Ahmad Kamal Nik Mahmood commented that the demand for one-third of the parliamentary seats stems from the safeguards in the Cobbold Commission’s Report, Sabah’s 20-Point Agreement, and Sarawak’s 18-Point Agreement, rather than the Federal Constitution itself.
He noted that the spirit of these agreements should be interpreted as ensuring that Sarawak and Sabah do not lose their constitutional privileges. The term “safeguard” in the Cobbold Commission Report, he explained, reinforces the idea that both agreements serve as legitimate grounds for Sarawak and Sabah to make such claims.
“Any claims made by Sarawak and Sabah must adhere to the legal foundations that were agreed upon during the formation of Malaysia,” he added.
