Dr Kelvin Yii
KUCHING: The Pakatan Harapan (PH) government has no intention to remove the immigration autonomy currently enjoyed by Sabah and Sarawak or any legal rights that is enshrined both in Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63) and the Federal Constitution.
In stating this, Bandar Kuching MP Dr Kelvin Yii said PH has always acknowledged and respected the special autonomy given to Sabah and Sarawak under MA63.
Therefore, the Democratic Action Party (DAP) lawmaker urged Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) to stop making ‘fairy tales’.
Dr Yii was responding to Petra Jaya MP and GPS chief whip Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof’s claim that should PH take over Sarawak in the next state election, which is due in 2021, Sarawakians would risk having their rights further eroded, particularly those over immigration and oil and gas.
“It is regrettable that a senior politician and an ex-Minister would resort to create such ‘fairy tales’ in order to paint a misleading and negative picture of the intentions of the federal government.
“Our immigration autonomy is well guarded and cannot be tampered with, let alone eroded or taken away. Yet, GPS is playing up this issue, knowing that this sentiment is an emotional one as it is close to our hearts,” Dr Yii stressed.
According to him, the PH government have shown their sincerity time and time again to honour and recognise the special status of Sabah and Sarawak in the Federation.
“This was shown again recently by the tabling of the amendments of Article 1(2) in parliament to restore the rightful status and correct historical injustice against Sabah and Sarawak.”
Dr Yii said the intention was to amend first the core Article that would make Sarawak one of three entities on the night of April 9, but due to political agenda and interest, GPS chose to let Sarawak remain as one of the 13th states.
On top of that, he said the PH Government has set up a high-level Bipartisan Special Cabinet Committee on MA63 which does not only involve politicians from both divide but also academicians and legal minds that will examine and identify the necessary legal rectifications needed to restore our rights under the Malaysian Agreement 1963.
“Other rights like proceeds of taxation, oil and gas royalties, healthcare, education and special grants are currently in discussion in that Special Cabinet Committee where member of the State Government including the Chief Minister (Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg) himself is part of.
“This is a high-level bipartisan committee, compared to which by Fadillah’s own admission, a closed-door negotiations by the federal leadership, lead at that time by YB (Datuk Seri) Nancy Shukri.”
“After all the years of negotiations, all that was achieved were some administrative devolution of powers. Chief Minister Abang Johari himself in a news report on Nov 30, 2017 was quoted admitting that ‘technical committee on the devolution of authority, co-chaired by YB Nancy Shukri and YB (Datuk Ser) Anifah Aman, was powerless,” said Dr Yii.
In comparison, Dr Yii said the PH government, in less than a year, has attempted to address the core issue of the state’s rightful status and the Special Cabinet Committee will also produce its report soon on all the different core issues including the review of special grants to Sarawak under Article 112(d) of the Constitution.
“The PH government has time and time again shown their sincerity to address the historical grievances and economic injustice to Sabah and Sarawak that was caused during the previous administration.
“So YB Fadillah should not resort to ‘fairy tales’ to create a false impression but rather take responsibility of the role he played as part of the previous administration on the erosion of our rights. Fact of the matter is, he was not just an MP but also a Deputy Minister when the Territorial Sea Act 2012 among others was passed in parliament that further eroded our rights to our natural resources,” said Dr Yii.