SIBU, Dec 13 – DAP veteran leader Lim Kit Siang said he will interrupt his campaigning for Pakatan Harapan and return to Kuala Lumpur Tuesday to vote in Parliament on the Constitution Amendment Bill 2021 to undo the Constitutional Amendment 45 years ago to restore to Sarawak its rights under the Malaysia Act 1963.
In a statement issued here this morning, Kit Siang said that when the 1976 Constitutional Amendment Bill was voted in Parliament on 13th July 1976, it was carried by 130 votes supporting and nine votes opposing.
“All the nine votes came from DAP which included myself. Those who supported the Constitution Amendment in 1976 which reduced Sarawak and Sabah from a region comparable to Peninsular Malaysia to one of the 13 states in Malaysia included all the Sarawak Barisan Nasional leaders, like two MPs who became Sarawak Chief Minister and Sarawak Yang di Pertua, Abdul Rahman Yaacob and Taib Mahmud, SUPP leaders Ong Kee Hui and Stephen Yong and SNAP leaders Edmund Langgu, Patrick Uren and Luhat Wan.”
He said the 22-month Pakatan Harapan tried to undo the 1976 Constitution Amendment and restore to Sarawak and Sabah the status of region together with Peninsular Malaysia and not one of the 13 states but this was move was defeated by the opposition of the GPS Members of Parliament who did not support it.
“Now, the GPS has another chance to undo the 1976 Constitution Amendment Bill tomorrow because the Confidence-Supply-Reform (CSR) Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed between Prime Minister Ismail Sabri and the four Pakatan Harapan leaders Anwar Ibrahim, Lim Guan Eng, Mohamad Sabu and Wilfred Madius Tangau on Sept. 13, 2021 insisted that the restoration of Sarawak and Sabah as two of the three regions and not two of the 13 states in Malaysia be addressed with priority and should be one of the key issues of the CSR MOU.
“Tomorrow will be the implementation of one of the key issues of the CSR MOU, and it is taking place at a time when there is more light at the end of the tunnel in the 23-month Covid-19 pandemic, which was another objective of the CSR MOU as yesterday, Malaysia has finally gone below the 4,000-case daily increase of new Covid-19 cases after struggling for seven months since May this year.”
Kit Siang also expressed disappointment in the slow reduction of Covid-19 cases in the country compared with other countries of larger population with similar numbers of cases like Malaysia.
He also addressed spoke of the disappointment expressed by a voter in Sibu on PH’s performance during its 22-month tenure but who also agreed that not all was lost and there was hope.
He said PH was given a mandate of five years to execute its general election pledges but it was toppled unfairly in February 2020..
“Pakatan Harapan should be judged whether it has failed to implement its election pledges in five years, and not in 22 months when it was trying to find its footing after more than half-a-century of UMNO government.
“It is even more unfair to accuse the 22-month PH Government and the DAP of having betrayed our principles and objectives because such allegations are sheer political demonisations and totally untrue.
“I met (former prime minister) Dr. Mahathir Mohamad when he was Prime Minister of PH government in a private meeting in July 2019 where I expressed my concern about the implementation of the PH election pledges, and he agreed to the establishment of a PH review committee on the implementation of the election pledges.
“As the PH government had 60 months to implement the election manifesto, I was planning to meet the Prime Minister on the issue after the mid-term of the government, and if there had been delay in implementing the election promises in the first half of the PH government, steps could be taken to accelerate the fulfilment of the election pledges in the second half of the PH Government
“But the PH could not even last half-way to 30 months, as it was toppled undemocratically, unconstitutionally and illegitimately in 22 months in the Sheraton Move conspiracy.”
–WE
.