ONE-THIRD PARLIAMENT REPRESENTATION
KUCHING: Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg is expected to announce the outcome of Sarawak’s demand on the allocation of one-third Parliamentary seats from the federal government in September.
According to Santubong MP Datuk Seri Dr Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar, the Sarawak government had discussed the matter with the federal government.
He said that he knew the details of the discussion but, could not reveal it until an announcement by the chief minister or Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.
“The Chief Minister will announce soon and if I’m not mistaken, it will be this coming September.
“September is not too far, so let’s wait because we’ve been waiting a long time,” he told a press conference after attending a Capacity Development and Cooperative Promotion Programme at My Village Barok, Kampung Boyan here.
The Entrepreneur Development and Cooperatives minister explained that it was a flashback to the formation of Malaysia in 1963, when Sabah and Sarawak were represented by about one-third of the MPs.
“However when Singapore left Malaysia in 1965, Singapore’s 15 seats at that time, were not divided among Sabah and Sarawak.
“So the (Singapore) seats were all handed over to Malaya, that’s why their seats were excessive.
“Hence, what we are asking for is for the number of MPs to return to its original ratio in 1963,” he stated.
On Thursday, Abang Johari said it was imperative to restore the status of Sabah and Sarawak as regional partners after the departure of Singapore in 1965 from the Federation of Malaysia.
“Sabah and Sarawak should have maintained the one-third out of 222 seats allocation and if this is not the case, power distribution in Parliament leans heavily towards Peninsular Malaysia,” he told an interview with Astro Awani.
Before Singapore left Malaysia in 1965, Peninsular Malaysia had one-third representation, Sarawak 24 seats, Sabah 16 seats and Singapore 15 seats in the Parliament.
After Singapore’s departure, its allocation of 15 seats was never distributed to Sarawak or Sabah.
Presently, Sarawak has 31 MPs and Sabah 25 MPs.
