Datuk Yong Teck Lee
KOTA KINABALU (Feb 16): Sabah should focus its efforts on reverting to the title of Yang di-Pertua Negara for its head of state (TYT), instead of following Sarawak to change the Chief Minister’s designation to Premier, said former Sabah Chief Minister Datuk Yong Teck Lee.
The Sabah Progressive Party president said the Sabah Yang di-Pertua Negara title was changed to Yang di-Pertua Negeri in 1976, and it was time to revert to the original term via a constitutional change to reflect Sabah’s status as a nation that joined the federation of Malaysia.
“Obtaining substance of autonomy is more important than the name change. We (Sabah) should pursue the transfer of powers for items under the federal, concurrent lists to the state list,” he said in a statement here on Wednesday.
Yong said there were also other important issues to pursue like regaining Sabah’s lost rights under the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63).
Commenting on Sarawak’s move to use the term Premier, Yong said the matter of its use needed to be clarified.
“One instant question is what is the Bahasa Malaysia term for ‘Premier’; ‘Premier’ is the head of government in a country that has no monarch. I suppose Sabah and Sarawak can qualify also.
“But ‘Prime Minister’ is the title of head of a government which has a monarch. This matter needs to be clarified fully before the title of ‘Premier’ is used,” he added
Yong said the question would not arise for Melaka and Penang because they have no state cabinets, unlike Sabah and Sarawak, but only executive councils.
The Sarawak state assembly on Tuesday passed a bill to allow the change of title from “chief minister” to “premier”.
The change came after the Federal Constitution was amended to re-establish Sarawak and Sabah as equal partners in the formation of Malaysia in 1963.
Kota Kinabalu Member of Parliament Chan Foong Hin feels that an amendment to the Malaysian Federal Constitution is necessary for the change to the name of the position of “Chief Minister of Sarawak” to “Premier of Sarawak” to be truly effective.
“I can’t help but wonder as to the effectiveness of the said amendment to the Sarawak Constitution by itself without an amendment to the Malaysian Federal Constitution,” Chan said in a statement yesterday.
He added that the amendment to the Sarawak constitution does not make any changes in duties nor powers of the said position, and neither does it make the federal government devolve any more power back to the state.
“I am of the view that it is more important to push for more decentralisation of powers concentrated at the federal government, including certain policy making powers and fiscal powers, in order to achieve true autonomy as envisioned by the people of Sabah and Sarawak,” he said.
Chan also said that in order to make the “Premier” be effectively more powerful with regards to other states in Malaya, a Federal Constitution amendment should follow suit.
“The term ‘Premier’ does not jive with our Malaysian Federal Constitution. Article 160 of the Malaysian Federal Constitution does not define ‘Premier’ as head of executive in a state. Article 160 only defines ‘Chief Minister’ and ‘Menteri Besar’ as head of executive in a state.
“Wan Junaidi from Sarawak is the de facto Federal Law Minister. Has he overlooked the issue? He could have included the word ‘Premier’ in the previous bill to amend the Malaysian Federal Constitution,” he said.
Chan also reminded that when Singapore was still part of the Malaysian Federation, the head of executive in the state of Singapore was named “Prime Minister”.
“So don’t be surprised when you are told that there were in fact two ‘Prime Ministers’ after 1963, one referring to ‘Prime Minister’ of the whole Federation, and the other one referring to ‘Prime Minister’ of Singapore.
“Nevertheless when you look at the Federation of Malaysia Bill annexed to the MA63 which was later on inserted with the definition in Article 160, ‘Prime Minister’ in Singapore is still a kind of ‘Chief Minister’ under the Malaysian Federal Constitution,” said Chan.
And as to whether Sabah should follow Sarawak’s footstep and change the name of the chief minister to premier, Chan said that he felt it was still too premature to decide.
“There have been proposals that Sabah follow suit in the name change. Should Sabah follow or not, right now I think it’s a premature issue. As I mentioned before, there has to be an amendment of the Federal Constitution first.
“There are so many different names in the world but all referring to the head of the executive council for a state/territory within a federation. In Australia, ‘Premier’ is the executive head for ‘state’, and ‘Chief Minister’ is the executive head for ‘territory’. In the United Kingdom of Great Britain, the head of the executive in Scotland and Northern Ireland is called ‘First Minister’.
“Instead of ‘Premier’, Sabah can find our own ‘glamour’ by claiming another fresh name. Why must we follow Sarawak and use ‘Premier’?” he said.