SABAH SARAWAK MUST BE GIVEN 222 Seats

KUCHING: Sabah and Sarawak must be given 35 per cent of the country’s parliamentary seats to restore their constitutional safeguards, whatever the formula or basis of the new re-delineation exercise

STAR Sabah chief Datuk Dr Jeffery Kitingan said in a press statement that Peninsular Malaysia should not be given more than 65 per cent of the seats as agreed upon at the outset of the formation of Malaysia.

He was commenting on the proposed re-delineation undertaken by the Election Commission (EC).

During the formation of Malaysia, Sabah and Sarawak were provided constitutional safeguards in 1963 to protect the special position of the Borneo states — the basis on which they agreed to form the new country, he said.

He said these safeguards were put in place to ensure that the special rights of Sabah and Sarawak would not be diluted or removed over time by the federal lawmakers from Malaya.

Jeffery elaborated that in paragraphs 190(g), 165 and 236(a)(i) of the Cobbold Commission Report, it was recommended by representatives of the Malayan government in the Commission and concurred by their British counterparts that “representation of the Borneo territories in the federal government shall take account not only of their populations but also of their size and potentialities”.

According to him, the ratio of parliamentary seats for Peninsular Malaysia has been manipulated through the years from 65 per cent in 1963 (with 104 out of 159 seats) to the current 75 per cent (with 166 out of 222 seats), which renders constitutional safeguards meaningless for Sabah and Sarawak.

He said this veto power of the Borneo States was unlawfully removed through the dilution of the 35 per cent members of parliament without the concurrence of the Sabah government in breach of the recommendation of the Inter-Governmental Committee (IGC) and agreed upon by the founding fathers of Malaysia.

“Paragraph 30(1) of the IGC Report states that: Constitutional Safeguards 30. (1) It is mentioned in other parts of this Report that the Federal Constitution should provide that certain provisions relating to the Borneo States should not be amended or repealed without the concurrence of the government of the state concerned.”

These provisions relate to immigration, citizenship, representation in the federal Parliament and the High Court of the Borneo States.

Jeffery said so far all focus on the re-delineation is upon the number of voters in a given constituency as though Sabah and Sarawak are not important in the exercise.

“Without Sabah and Sarawak, there would have been no Malaysia and all that exists would be the Federation of Malaya.

“The number of voters in Malayan constituencies is not the sole criteria, so what are the MPs from Malaya talking about?” he asked.

He pointed out that in Peninsular Malaysia, the parliamentary seat of Putrajaya with an area of about 49 square km and 15,791 registered voters in the last elections has a Member of Parliament who is now a minister.

“In comparison, the Keningau parliamentary constituency, which comprises my Bingkor state constituency and two others, has 43,691 voters over an area of 3,533 square km.

“Keningau is larger than the combined area of Penang, Melaka and Perlis (3,505 square km), which has a combined 26 MPs. Imagine the disparity in allocations for the MPs and development funds where Keningau with one MP will get a pittance compared to the 26 MPs?” he said.

He added that the disparity is even greater for the parliamentary constituency of Kinabatangan, with an area of 16,658 square km and represented by one member of parliament as it is larger than the combined area of Kelantan (14,882 square km) and Melaka (1,650 square km).

“Therefore, the proposed re-delineation exercise to be announced by the EC at the end of this year should rectify the past mistakes and restore the special position of Sabah and Sarawak in the federation” added Jeffrey