KUCHING, Dec 17: The Malaysia Agreement 963 (MA63) is valid as no court decision has declared otherwise, and its inclusion into the Federal Constitution now gives the treaty the force of law in terms of special status and position of Sarawak and Sabah in Malaysia as well as to reinstate rights and privileges that had been eroded.
De facto Law Minister Dato Sri Dr Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar emphasised this in responding to Parti Bumi Kenyalang’s (PBK) Voon Lee Shan, who has persistently denied the validity of MA63 following the separation of Singapore from Malaysia and in turn deemed the recently passed MA63 Bill as meaningless.
“I do not understand why he (Voon) continues to raise this matter. One could not arbitrarily claim the MA63 to be invalid.
“The inclusion of MA63 into the Federal Constitution would further validate the legitimacy of the treaty and would truly give recognition to the demands and special status and position of Sabah and Sarawak in Malaysia,” he pressed in a statement issued today.
Wan Junaidi added that the passing of the Bill to amend the Federal Constitution related to MA63 on Dec 14 was a significant and historic victory for the people in Sabah and Sarawak.
“For the first time since Malaysia was formed in 1963, we would be able to include the treaty into the Federal Constitution to become the real Malaysia in the context of the three agreements: Federal Agreement 1948, Federal Agreement 1957 and the MA63,” he said.
On Voon’s claim that the amendment was just an election gimmick and would not bring about any real benefit, Wan Junaidi, who is also the Santubong MP, said the PBK president could not be any further from the truth.
With MA63 bound in the Federal Constitution, he pointed out that the Federal government can no longer say the demands from Sabah and Sarawak are not in the Constitution or in the law of Malaysia because it is already in the Federal Constitution.
“The government can now refer to all the promises made in 1963 in detail and spell out in the Inter-Governmental Committee (IGC) report, which is the in-depth study of the Cobbold Commission Report, on the demands of Sabah and Sarawak.
“As a result of the amendments, this would enable us to fight for more rights to be returned to Sabah and Sarawak. So how can he (Voon) say the amendments are meaningless?
“This is just the first step. Of course, we will be looking into more amendments moving forward,” he added.
While Wan Junaidi noted that it may be still too early to see the impact from material and monetary aspects at this point, he assured that these amendments would give recognition to the special privileges of Sabah and Sarawak.
“Yes, I admit, over the years, some of those privileges and rights have been eroded. But, now, with the amendments, we can focus on reclaiming it.
“I must admit that this is not an easy matter to digest, especially to laymen. And because of that, I would like to implore politicians not to exploit this issue to cause further confusion and sow feelings of anger and dissatisfaction among the rakyat towards the ruling government,” he urged.
A total of 200 out of 222 MPs voted for the Bill in the second reading, with close to 200 giving the nod in the third reading.
This, Wan Junaidi emphasised, was one of those moments where parliamentarians, regardless of their political differences, were in agreement that this was indeed the right thing to do. — DayakDaily
