KUCHING: Parti Bumi Kenyalang (PBK) adviser, former Batu Lintang assemblyman and lawyer, Voon Lee Shan, said the federal government had succeeded in diverting the attention of the people by creating an impression that the amendment to Article 1(2) was a sincere attempt to put Sabah and Sarawak on equal status with the Federation of Malaya.
“Due to the proposed amendment, the people of Sabah and Sarawak in the past months since the first official visit of Law Minister Datuk Liew Vui Keong to Sarawak last year were kept busy debating the issue.
“The federal government knew that the people of Sabah and Sarawak were unhappy that many rights in the MA63 had been watered down and/or had not been implemented and it was for this reason that the proposed amendment was tabled,” he said in a press statement.
“When Sabahans and Sarawakians were drawn into debates about MA63 and the proposed amendment of Article 1(2), sadly most of them forgot or failed to look into the legality of the formation of Malaysia.
“Only a handful of people debated on the legality of the formation of Malaysia, and once that legality became questionable, Sabahans and Sarawakians should have pressed their governments to get the federal government to set up a Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) to look into the issue.
“If the inquiry finds Malaysia was not properly constituted in accordance with international law, the governments of Sabah and Sarawak should be pressured to ask the federal government to declare the formation of Malaysia void,” Voon stated.
He then mentioned that even if the formation of Malaysia was proper, there is nothing to prevent Malaysia from disintegrating or be declared void if it could be found that there are fundamental breaches in MA63.
“Indeed the federal government’s move to put Sabah and Sarawak back to their original positions as stated in MA63 showed that there had been fundamental breaches in MA63. In fact it had admitted as much.
“Once declared void, the parties thereafter, if they so desire, can decide how to work out a new political identity or union,” he said.
Although the federal government could not have the amendment passed by Parliament, the Federation of Malaya had nothing to lose “because in either way, whether Article 1(2) of Federal Constitution is amended or not, the Federation of Malaya still has its imperialism strategies over Sabah and Sarawak intact.
Without any intention to amend other provisions in the constitution giving equal voice in Parliament to Sabah and Sarawak, the impression of many people of the Borneo states is that they are colonies of the Federation of Malaya and that exit or independence from the Federation of Malaysia is the best solution, he added.
At the moment, the combined parliamentary seats held by Sabah and Sarawak constitute less than one-third of the 222 seats in Parliament.
The inequality of seats cannot give rise to equal partnership even if equal status could be restored.
Parti Bumi Kenyalang has heard the voices of people seeking independence from the Federation of Malaysia and will contest in the next state election seeking independence for Sarawak, he said.
