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Putrajaya hasn’t shown us MA63 draft bill, says Sarawak AG

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However, Talat Mahmood Abdul Rashid says his office has been notified of the decision to re-table the amendment in the next Parliament sitting.

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Free Malaysia Today
Sarawak attorney-general Talat Mahmood Abdul Rashid says the state has given its version of the amendment to Putrajaya.

KUCHING:
Putrajaya has not given the draft of the proposed amendment to Article 1(2) of the Federal Constitution to Sarawak, although the bill was expected to be re-tabled at the Parliament this March.

The proposed amendment to the article would restore the status of the two states as equal partners with Peninsular Malaysia in the Malaysian federation.

Sarawak state attorney-general Talat Mahmood Abdul Rashid said Putrajaya had only informed his office about the decision to re-table the amendment in the next Parliament sitting.

“The minister in the prime minister’s office had also written to Sabah and Sarawak state attorney-generals, asking us to prepare for the amendment and to liase with his office.

“But we have actually given our version of the amendment to Putrajaya and they said they will have a look at it. We have not done many changes to it,”he said when met at the launch of the hydrogen bus operation here, today.

The Pakatan Harapan (PH) government failed to secure the two-thirds majority needed for the amendment when it was tabled last April.

Only 138 MPs of the 221 in the house at the time voted. Of the 59 lawmakers who abstained from voting, 18 were from Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS).

Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) claimed that “MA63” was not mentioned in the Federal Constitution and proposed its own amendment which read:

“The states in the federation shall be, pursuant to the Malaysia Agreement 1963, (a) Malaya (Johor, Kedah, Kelantan, Melaka, Negeri Sembilan, Pahang, Perak, Perlis, Pulau Pinang, Selangor, and Terengganu); and (b) the Borneo states of Sabah and Sarawak.”

Earlier this month, de facto law minister Liew Vui Keong said the federal government was confident that the constitutional amendment to Article 1(2) when re-tabled in March this year would pass with the complete support from Sarawak Chief Minister Abang Johari Openg.

Batang Sadong MP Nancy Shukri said last Tuesday that the GPS lawmakers had yet to view the proposed amendment to Article 1(2).

She also said GPS MPs would abstain from voting on the amendment to Article 1(2) of the Federal Constitution in the Dewan Rakyat this March if the federal government did not change the wording.

“If the same thing is re-tabled then what’s the point? It has no substance. We will still abstain,” Nancy added.

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