Hasidah: Govt continuing pursuit of 35 pct Dewan Rakyat seats for Sarawak, Sabah
Datuk Sharifah Hasidah Sayeed Aman Ghazali — File photo by Roystein Emmor
KUCHING (May 18): The state government will continue to pursue its demand for Sarawak and Sabah to have 35 per cent of seats in the Dewan Rakyat, said Datuk Sharifah Hasidah Sayeed Aman Ghazali.
The Deputy Minister in the Premier’s Department (Law, MA63, State-Federal Relations) said this is to ensure Sarawak’s representation in Parliament is in line with the original spirit and purpose of the formation of Malaysia and the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63).
“It is also pertinent to mention that this matter has also been made known to the Deputy Prime Minister (Dato Sri Fadillah Yusof) as he was appointed to oversee all matters relating to the implementation of MA63 on the federal side,” she said in reply to Lo Khere Chiang (GPS-Batu Kitang) during the State Legislative Assembly (DUN) sitting today.
Sharifah Hasidah said the Sarawak government had proposed to the previous federal government for the number of Dewan Rakyat representatives for Sabah and Sarawak be increased to 35 per cent.
She said the matter was at that time presented to the MA63 Special Councilduring its meeting on Sept 8 last year.
She said it was agreed at that meeting that the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Parliament and Law) at that time would bring up this proposal to the federal Cabinet under the previous government.
“However, as we all know, on Oct 10 last year, the Malaysian Parliament was dissolved to make way for the 15th general election (GE15). After the establishment of the new Federal (unity) government, the honorable Prime Minister has agreed to form a different committee to replace the previous committee, that is the MA63 Implementation Action Council (MTPMA63) comprising all our deputy premiers.
“On Jan 20 this year, the first meeting of MTPMA63 was held and through this meeting, a working committee chaired by Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Law and Institutional Reform) was proposed to be created to continue the discussions on this matter of 35 per cent representation in Parliament.
“This committee was established in order to obtain a policy decision since this matter will involve amendments to the Federal Constitution,” she explained.
Sharifah Hasidah also said increasing seats in Parliament can be done by amending Article 46 of the Federal Constitution, whereby the number of elected members is specifically altered.
On the re-delineation exercise for the state, she said pursuant to Article 113 of the Federal Constitution, there shall be an interval of not less than eight years between the dates of completion of each review.
She pointed out the last re-delineation process for Sarawak was done in 2015 and as such the next review of re-delineation should be this year.
“Under Article 113, the Election Commission shall from time to time as they deem necessary review the division of the Federation and the States into constituencies,” she added.
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