Doubling down on ‘DN 35/100’ proposal, Projek SAMA suggests holding election for Sarawak, Sabah senators

KUCHING (Oct 6): Project Stability and Accountability for Malaysia (Projek SAMA) has proposed for East Malaysian senators to be directly elected to safeguard the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63).

In a statement, the group said direct election for all senators from Sabah and Sarawak is being proposed as a ‘reinforcement step’ to ensure a constitutional veto power for East Malaysia in the Dewan Negara.

“We call upon all Malaysian democrats who genuinely want a constitutional veto power in the Dewan Negara to support this enhanced solution: Amendment to Article 45(1)(a) to increase the number of senators from Sabah and Sarawak from 2 to 17; and a parliamentary act empowered by Article 45(4)(b) to introduce direct election for senators from Sabah and Sarawak,” they said.

Projek SAMA also expressed gratitude for all the positive and negative comments to their previous ‘DN 35/100’ proposal – a veto bloc made up of Sarawak and Sabah each having 17 seats, and Labuan (one seat) – in an expanded 100-seat Dewan Negara, to block any unilateral constitutional amendment by Peninsular Malaysia.

They, however, refuted the ‘misinformation’ that the Senate lacks legitimacy and that the senatorial veto power cannot protect the interest of East Malaysians.

“An honest reading of the Federal Constitution would show the unequivocal guarantee of senatorial power in Article 68(5).

“So, if 35 per cent of senators vote against any constitutional amendments, such amendments cannot be passed. All the constitutional guarantees for Sabah and Sarawak made under the MA63 cannot be undone,” they said.

They also said that dismissing the DN 35/100 proposal is ‘fundamentally a blanket distrust’ of senators from East Malaysia – that even if the 34 senators are to be appointed by the state legislative assemblies of Sabah and Sarawak, they still could not be trusted to defend MA63.

“Hence, if anyone claims that 34 senators from Sabah and Sarawak cannot be trusted to defend MA63, they are basically saying that the Sabah and Sarawak governments that appoint the senators cannot be trusted to defend MA63.

“Projek SAMA finds such trust deficit in Sabah and Sarawak’s political establishment astonishing, especially when it comes from within, including a senator from East Malaysia.”

The group said since the biggest difference in constitutional veto between 35 per cent MPs from East Malaysia and 34 senators representing Sabah and Sarawak is in the elected nature of MPs, the solution is therefore simple, namely eliminate the difference and let voters elect the 34 senators from Sabah and Sarawak so that they could be as independent as the elected MPs.

“This is possible even before the entire Dewan Negara is reformed and without touching the existing 44 federal appointees and 22 other state appointees.

“This pathway has been provided by the 1957 Federal Constitution but regrettably not utilised by MA63, in Article 45(4)(b) which states clearly: ‘Parliament may by law … (b) provide that the members to be elected for each State shall be elected by the direct vote of the electors of the State’.”

Projek SAMA also said they are consistent in their stand that Malaysia’s federalism benefits from a veto power from East Malaysia.

“Secondly, such veto power should be invested in the Dewan Negara, in line with democratic practices in other federations; thirdly, this veto power should be realised before the 16th General Election, which can only be possibly done in time through the Dewan Negara.”