KUCHING: Sarawak legal practitioners do not want the Legal Profession Act to be extended to the state nor opening the profession to their counterpart from the peninsula.
Bandar Kuching MP Chong Chieng Jen, who debated on the Legal Profession (Amendment) Bill, 2012, in Parliament on Tuesday, said this in a press statement issued yesterday.
“As a Sarawakian Member of Parliament, I felt duty bound to participate in the debate in Parliament on the Legal Profession (Amendment) Bill, 2012, even though the Act is not applicable to Sarawak.
“This is because some Barisan Nasional MPs from the peninsula had suggested that Sarawak’s legal profession be opened up,” said Chong, who is also state DAP secretary and Kota Sentosa assemblyman.
Chong, who thanked Batang Sadong MP Nancy Sukri for endorsing his stand on the issue during the latter’s subsequent debate in Parliament, said the special right of the Sarawak legal profession not to allow their peninsula counterpart to practise in the state “is a right agreed upon at the formation of Malaysia.”
“This is our constitutional rights. As such, it is not for a non-Sarawakian to question the right. I have also drawn the analogy of such a right to the Bumiputera’s special rights, which many politicians have defended strongly.
“If the Bumiputera’s special right is not to be questioned, likewise, Sarawak’s special rights, which are equally provided in our Constitution, should not be questioned too.”
Chong, who is also a lawyer by profession, appealed to all non-Sarawakian politicians to leave matters pertaining to Sarawak’s special rights alone.
“Should there be a need to change or even abolish such rights, let it come from a Sarawakian, rather than a non-Sarawakian,” he said.