Constitutional amendment must include ‘pursuant to MA63’ before GPS will vote for it, says Nancy Shukri

KUCHING: The proposed constitutional amendment to restore Sarawak and Sabah as equal partners in Malaysia, which will be re-tabled in March, must include the words "pursuant to the Malaysia Agreement 1963", says a Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) lawmaker.

Batang Sadong MP Datuk Seri Nancy Shukri (pic) said the phrase should be included in the main clause of Article 1(2) of the Federal Constitution and not in the explanatory notes.

She said GPS MPs abstained from voting on the amendment when it was first tabled last April as it did not contain those words.

"We did not oppose the amendment, but we did not vote for the provisions that they put in because for the sake of Sarawak we wanted 'pursuant to the Malaysia Agreement 1963' to be there.

"I remember what they did was they put it in the explanatory notes. For us, that could not stand because it's not law, it's just explanatory," she told reporters on Tuesday (Jan 14).

The amendment to Article 1(2) failed to get the required two-thirds majority to be passed in Parliament on April 9 last year after GPS and Barisan Nasional MPs abstained from voting.

On Dec 17, de facto Law Minister Datuk Liew Vui Keong said the amendment would be re-tabled in March this year.

Nancy said there was no point for the Federal Government to re-table the same amendment without any changes.

Asked if GPS would still abstain if so, she said: "of course".

She added that GPS lawmakers had not seen the proposed amendment so far.

"We don't know what they're going to put in yet. We need to see what is going to come up.

"For now, we cannot commit anything yet. We have to make sure that Sarawak's interest is there," she said.