KUCHING: A state lawmaker has expressed hope that the proposed amendments to Articles 1(2) and 160(2) of the Federal Constitution (FC) will get the support of all MPs across the divide.
Meradong assemblyman Datuk Ding Kuong Hiing said the proposed amendment was long overdue, adding it was to right what was misconstructed in the FC.
“I can foresee the constitutional amendments will be a long drawn-out process and the Sarawak government has always been aggressively pursuing the return of our autonomous rights as enshrined under the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63),” he said on Saturday (Sept 18).
He was commenting on the state government’s proposal for the federal government to introduce an amendment to Articles 1(2) and 160(2) of the Federal Constitution.
Ding said the proposed amendment should include the sentence “pursuant to Malaysia Agreement 1963” in Article 1(2) to revert Sarawak and Sabah statuses as separate entities, and not lump together with the States of Malaya.
It was also proposed that Article 160(2) be amended to redefine ‘the Federation’ as the Federation established under MA63 signed on July 9, 1963, and not the Malaya Agreement 1957.
He noted there were many other amendments that needed to be looked into, including Article 95B dealing with State List, Concurrent List among others.
