Don: Much more to be done to realise Sarawak’s rights under MA63

KUCHING (Jan 20): The impact of Sarawak in the Unity Government has yet to be seen and felt by Sarawakians, says political analyst Prof Datuk Dr Jayum Jawan.

According to him, administrative autonomy alone would not enable Sarawak to reinstate its economic and territorial rights.

He said the only way to effect real change over its status within the Malaysian constitutional order, according to Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63), would be through constitutional change.

“The administration of the Unity Government has enough MPs’ support to enable them to take up something structural.

“To me, increasing the allocation for Sabah and Sarawak is something that can be done by any prime minister.

“For example, Sabah and Sarawak were one of the three regions that established Malaysia, but this is not reflected in the Constitution.

“What is more important is to institutionalise the status of Sarawak and Sabah, and this is the fundamental change that needs to be done because such change requires more than just talks and promises.

“What it needs is fundamental change which is through legal process,” he said during a recent interview with Sinar Harian in its latest podcast episode.

Jayum said the legal process would be far from straightforward, but the current government should have the capability to make constitutional amendments.

He said this was because the Unity Government had more than two-thirds majority support.

“To institutionalise the matter, what the current government needs is to have a two-thirds majority support in both Parliament and the Senate.

“It also needs support from the Conference of Rulers to endorse the move.

“This change is fundamental as it involves law. So this is something that needs to be worked on,” he added.

Nonetheless, Jayum felt that efforts to push for restoration of the MA63 were still slow.

He said what was left now would be whether or not the Unity Government led by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim had the political will to resolve the issues through constitutional change.

“It can be realised, but only if you have the will to resolve this,” he added.