KUCHING: Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP) Central Youth secretary-general Milton Foo has chided Batu Lintang assemblyman See Chee How for defending the federal government’s right to Bintulu Port.
He deemed this as preposterous and cited “List IIA-Supplement to State List for States of Sabah and Sarawak Item 15 under Article 95B (1)(a) of the Federal Constitution” which provides:
“Ports and harbours, other than those declared to be federal by or under federal law; regulation of traffic by water in ports and harbours or on rivers wholly within the state, except traffic in federal ports or harbours; foreshores.”
Foo said, “The pertinent issue in question now is, whether the Bintulu Port, which is declared as federal port under the said Acts (i.e. the Declaration Of An Area In The Bintulu District To Be A Federal Port Act 1979 and the Bintulu Port Authority Act 1981) is constitutional or not, namely whether or not the Sarawak government then had been duly consulted and Sarawak Legislative Assembly (DUN) has duly endorsed the so-called federal port in 1979 or 1981.”
“Upon perusing the Hansards of DUN sittings from 1979 to 1981, there is no evidence that Sarawak Legislative Assembly or DUN had given such mandate to the establishment of the federal port in Bintulu.
“It follows that both the said 1979 and 1981 Acts, which had been passed unilaterally by the Malaysian Parliament without consultation to Sarawak may be contrary to the provisions of the Federal Constitution thus rendering the said Acts ‘void for unconstitutionality’,” said Foo, who is also a board member of Kuching Port Authority.
He argued that if by passing any Act of Parliament unilaterally and without consultation to the Sarawak government and/or endorsement by Sarawak DUN, it would definitely put Sarawak’s interests at stake as “Parliament could simply pass another Act tomorrow to declare and build another federal port in any part or territory of Sarawak without any endorsement from Sarawak.
“It is utterly absurd to say that the federal government has the right to do so as long as the bill has been tabled in Parliament and the law has been passed by Parliament notwithstanding that Sarawak is not agreeable to it.”
Foo also echoed the views of PRS Youth chief Datuk Snowdan Lawan that it is still within the ambit of the Sarawak government’s jurisdiction to revisit and where necessary, to review the lease of state land or the
establishment of the port in relation to Sarawak’s constitutional rights.
Foo added that Deputy Chief Minister Tan Sri Dr James Jemut Masing, being the minister in charge of all ports in Sarawak, has a good case on the merits when he said that despite the port declared and built under the said 1981 Act, there are laws passed in Parliament which state that some laws can only be effective after the endorsement of Sarawak DUN.
