By DayakDaily Team
KUCHING, Sept 11: Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s agreement in principle to increase parliamentary representation for Sarawak and Sabah must now be followed by concrete action, says Sarawak Tourism, Creative Industry and Performing Arts Minister Dato Sri Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah.
Abdul Karim, who is also Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB) Information chief, said Putrajaya must ensure the proposal does not remain merely a statement of intent, but leads to actual changes in the number of parliamentary seats for the two states.
“The Prime Minister’s views must be followed through with concrete action,” he said as quoted by news portal Free Malaysia Today (FMT) today.
He said efforts must be made to ensure Sabahans and Sarawakians could see that the proposal was not merely Anwar’s personal view, but a commitment that would eventually be implemented.
Anwar earlier today said the Federal Constitution would be amended to increase the number of parliamentary seats for Sabah and Sarawak in line with the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63).
Abdul Karim was also quoted saying the move was necessary to restore greater representation for the two Borneo states in Parliament, although no specific number of additional seats has yet been announced.
He said the arrangement was rooted in the formation of Malaysia in 1963, when Sarawak, Sabah and Singapore collectively held roughly one-third of the seats in the Federal Parliament.
At the time, Malaya held 105 of the 160 parliamentary seats, while Sarawak had 24, Sabah 16 and Singapore 15.
However, following Singapore’s departure from Malaysia, its 15 parliamentary seats were not redistributed to Sabah and Sarawak, resulting in the two Borneo states losing the proportion of representation they had at the formation of Malaysia.
Sarawak and Sabah now hold 31 and 25 seats respectively out of 222 Dewan Rakyat seats, giving them a combined 56 seats or about 25.2 per cent of the total.
“This is 18 seats short of achieving the one-third representation, which amounts to 74 seats,” he said.
Abdul Karim also thanked Anwar for recognising the issue, saying previous federal leaders had either dismissed it or argued that the arrangement was not expressly provided for in the Federal Constitution.
“Thank you, Anwar, for being able to understand what many MPs from West Malaysia, as well as prime ministers before you, could not see or chose not to see,” he said. — DayakDaily
