KUCHING: Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP) Central Woman chief Kho Teck Wan concurred with Santubong MP Datuk Seri Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar that the Federal government enact a law to allow for a referendum to give citizens their say on major issues that affect them.
She said issues such as exiting Malaysia, LGBT rights, even minimum age to get married can be decided through referendum.
“Many demonstrations and riots happened in the world due to frustration that people’s voices are not being heard by the government. As we all know, prolonged demonstration will dampen the economy and cause political instability. Referendum allows decision making to be a shared responsibility. Law makers will feel much easier to make changes and create new laws that are based on the result of a referendum as well,” she explained.
Kho said it was important that the referendum law be carefully drafted and reviewed by all lawmakers and legislative bodies before it is passed.
She added that extensive education on a specific topic for referendum needed to be conducted and cover all corners of the society before any referendum can be carried out.
“Although it is not an easy process and costly, it is time we should have the law,” she opined.
Speaking during a forum on referendums here on Tuesday, Wan Junaidi said in Malaysia, there was currently no law on referendums and decision making were based at the whims and fancy of the legislators. This, he said, was not fair to the people as major issues affected them.
He cited an example that when Malaya wanted to take Sarawak oil, they should have a referendum first but the problem lies in the constitution which has no law to hold such event.
