By Shikin Louis
KUCHING, May 8: Kota Sentosa assemblyman Wilfred Yap has proposed that the Sarawak State Legislative Assembly be renamed as Parliament of Sarawak to reflect the region’s status as different from other states in Federation of Malaya.
He recalled that as part of Sarawak’s efforts to reclaim its rights under Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63), the title of Chief Minister of Sarawak was changed to Premier of Sarawak in February 2022 so that Sarawak would not be compared to other states like Penang and Melaka which also have a Chief minister.
He further cited Australia as a Commonwealth region with similar set ups as Malaysia, where the head of the Federation is styled as Prime Minister and heads of the regions constituting the federation are styled as premier.
Australia is a federation of six states and two self-governing territories, namely the states of New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, Tasmania, South Australia and Western Australia and Northern Territory and Australian Capital Territory.
The states of New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, Tasmania, South Australia and Western Australia have Premiers as their head of government whereas Northern Territory and Australian Capital Territory have Chief Ministers as their head of government.
“The states of New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, Tasmania, South Australia and Western Australia name their legislative body ‘parliament’ and Northern Territory and Australian Capital Territory names their legislative body ‘Legislative Assembly’.
“Currently the unicameral legislature of Sarawak is known as the Sarawak State Legislative Assembly.
“To reflect the status of Sarawak as one of the signatories of MA63 and using the nomenclature used in Australia for the legislative body of the six states and two territories, I propose that the Sarawak State Legislative Assembly be renamed Parliament of Sarawak to correctly reflect the status of Sarawak as different from the other states in the Federation of Malaya,” he said when seconding the Motion of Appreciation for the Tuan Yang Terutama’s (TYT) address tabled by Tamin assemblyman Christopher Gira Sambang in the august House today. — DayakDaily
