Turun Ke Laut Pok - Fishing Season Is Here Again
It is fishing season now. Generally, the weather is fine but the sea is tumultuous for the PN trawler and the juragan of GPS perahu is understandably concerned. GPS crew members will not be motivated enough to venture out unless superior bait is provided. All in all, it is very uncomfortable in the GPS perahu now.
So yes, CM Abang Johari’s statement on aligning the federal constitution with MA63 is nothing more than just another fishing trip for the big one - another win for GPS in the coming PRN.
To have a better sense of what is on the table now it is important to recall a very important and crucial event that took place in April 2019. In April 2019, PH was the federal government and the prime minister was not Tan Sri Daro Muhyiddin Yassin but Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad.
This is the event that is being referred to here: On the 9th April 2019, a government bill to align the federal constitution to and make it mirror the Malaysian Agreement 1963 was tabled in parliament. We can safely assumed that the bill was crafted after much deliberation by the cabinet members including those from Sarawak and Sabah. An MP from Sarawak described the bill in these words : It was a grand first step on the journey to returning Sabah and Sarawak's rights in stages and incrementally according to MA63.
There much publicity on the bill prior to the debate in parliament and expectations were running high in Sarawak and Sabah but the bill failed and Sarawak and Sabah revert back to square one. The bill failed because GPS MPs abstained from voting. The reason which GPS proffered for their abstention was because the bill was flawed.
Please note here that there is a huge difference between voting against the bill and abstaining from voting.
The same MP whose words are quoted above went on to say ,’ When Pakatan Harapan tabled the Bill to amend the Federal Constitution on April 9, the main purpose and objective of the amendment was to restore Sabah and Sarawak's status to pre-1976 when all three entities (Malaya, Sabah and Sarawak) were equal partners in Malaysia.
In that case, if the Bill was indeed flawed, then they should have publicly opposed the Bill and voted against it for all to see. Instead, they chose to abstain.
By choosing to abstain, they are not saying it was wrong and neither are they saying it was right. They are neither here nor there. Had GPS voted for the bill, the 2/3 majority needed to pass the bill and make the amendment into would have been met.
https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2019/04/09/constitutional-amendment-fails-in-dewan-rakyat/
Simply put, GPS abstention on the 9th April 2019 was a horrible act of betrayal to Sarawak and Sabah, one that will be etched in the collective memory of Sarawakians and Sabahan for a long long time.
It is also important to remember another important fact : Any amendment to the federal constitution requires a 2/3 majority in parliament before it can be gazetted as law.
Fast forward to today.
The Perikatan Nasional (PN) federal government currently have 115 MPs in the Malaysian parliament, inclusive of the so-called PN friendly independent MPs. That is just slightly a little more than 50% of the total number of MPs (222) in our Malaysian parliament. 115 most definitely is not two third of the total, not even near. How is an amendment to the federal constitution, to accommodate GPS’s wishes, going to get passed when the PN federal government does not have the requisite numbers on their side?
Secondly Malaysia is currently in a state of emergency and parliament has been suspended. I seriously doubt that a meeting of MPs will be called in the hall of a hotel in Petaling Jaya and the amendment to the federal constitution passed there. It is quite simple really. As long as our parliament remain suspended, no business of parliament can be conducted and that include debating a bill on GPS’s proposed amendment to parliament.
So, what are Sarawakians to make of CM Abang Johari’s statement on this constitutional amendment thing? Nothing at all. It is a mere fishing trip where he hope GPS can continue to pull the wool over our eyes. It just like the July 2017 fact finding mission to London. All these served one purpose only: They are props for the fiction that GPS has been trying to propagate in minds of Sarawakians - that they are the champion of and fighter for Sarawak’s rights as stated in the MA63.
Sarawakians today are quite the smart bunch and we all can tell between fact and fiction, between reality and make-believe. All that is left to be done now is to show GPS the exit door in the coming PRN.
No comments:
Post a Comment