Sabah need constitutional reforms to devolve more legislative jurisdictions to the State Assembly in order to enable Sabah stand on its own two feet and not having to depend on the Federal government too much.
DAP Sabah believes that true and meaningful devolution of the legislative jurisdiction could only be achieved by constitutional amendments to the 9th Schedule of the Federal Constitution – by transferring many of the legislative jurisdictions from the Federal List to the State List, or at least the Concurrent List.
This is among the issues raised in the memorandum on the review of Sabah Rights by DAP Sabah. The delegates who represented DAP Sabah to attend the Sabah Rights Review hearing in the State Assembly Hall yesterday were Jimmy Wong (Member Parliament for Kota Kinabalu), Jeannie Lasimbang (DAP Sabah Pro Tem Women Wing Chief) and I (DAP Sabah Secretary-cum-Sri Tanjong Assemblyman).
In the memorandum DAP Sabah stated that by having more legislative jurisdictions, there must also be a higher share of the total national revenue paid to Sabah, in order for Sabah to carry out such legislative mandates and implement her own social programmes.
The revenue sharing should be formalised or institutionalised to avoid the state government being penalised or victimised by the ruling party in the federal government, for political purposes or “revenge politics.”
We must stress that DAP Sabah are not impressed with the “administrative devolution” which had occurred in Sarawak, in the run up to Sarawak’s 2016 state election.
Such arrangements, severely limited in scope and effect, would always depend on the goodwill and cooperation of the federal government. They are also not permanent or secure, could be revoked by the federal government at any time.
The Memorandum stated that Sabah Can Do Better and that DAP Sabah welcomed the initiative of the Sabah State Government in seeking to review Sabah’s rights in Malaysia.
We believe that, after more than five decades of Malaysia, it is opportune for us to take a bold and imaginative approach in forging the destiny of Sabah.
It said that while DAP Sabah agrees that all Sabah’s rights and safeguards under the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (“MA63”; whenever mentioned, shall include the Inter-Governmental Committee Report, “IGCR”) must be defended at all cost, it also believed that MA63 should be regarded only as our bottom line, not our final goal.
In other words, DAP Sabah believe that Sabah can do better than as envisaged under MA63, without denying the sanctity of MA63 in any way.
Sabah deserves to become much better and stronger than what MA63 has given us. We deserve to enjoy real and meaningful autonomy, which gives us the pertinent power, capacities and resources to govern ourselves and to shape our own destiny, and not just autonomy in the narrow sense of “not having to take orders from Malaya.
Under MA63, Sabah was envisaged largely as an agriculture and land-based economy, dependant on the export of her natural resources such as oil and forest products.
But ultimately Sabah is heavily dependent on the Federal Government of Malaysia, for its economic and social development and policy-making in most aspects of governance, it said.
Unfortunately, when Sabah has run out of her natural resources, when there is no more timber or oil to export, Sabah government is then forced to sell her lands to non-Sabahans, and quickly becoming dependent on the federal government for its fiscal needs.
The question DAP Sabah wishes to ask is: why can’t Sabah do better, much better, than that.
Why can’t we become as strong, if not stronger, than advanced industrial powerhouses and knowledge economies such as Selangor and Penang, for example?
Given the abundance of natural and human resources in Sabah, why should we settle for less, and be content with being merely a self-sufficient kampong (so to speak), but not an international hub and metropolitan economy?
After more than five decades of the “Malaysian Experiment”, Sabah has been “transformed” from one of the richest states in Malaysia, to one of the poorest, whose income is among the most unequally distributed, plagued with illegal or politically-motivated immigrants, as well as constant security threats from within and without.
Sabah has become famous for all the wrong reasons, and Sabahans have become the butt of jokes and cautionary tales for other Malaysians.
Therefore, DAP Sabah believed that any discussion of Sabah rights in the Federation of Malaysia should not be done within a straightjacket, or under a limited framework the present Federal Constitution or even the MA63 only.
To do so meaningfully, such a discussion must involve a total reconsideration of Sabah’s place in the federation. In other words, it is time for a “New Federation” and a new kind of Federalism.
However, its proposal for a “New Federation” do not involve any change, in any way, shape or form the following aspects of the Federal Constitution of Malaysia; Sabah as part of the Federation of Malaysia, the position of Islam as the official religion of Malaysia, position of Bahasa Malaysia as the official language of Malaysia, the system of constitutional monarchy of Malaysia and the positions of the Conference of Rulers (either individually or collectively), the special position, protection and privileges of the Malays and the Natives of Sabah and Sarawak, the fundamental liberties of the citizens of Malaysia, free and fair elections, the rule of law, and the system of separation of powers and checks and balances.
All we are proposing is only to have a new federal and state relationship, a “New Federalism”, by strengthening Sabah’s role and dignity as an equal partner of Malaysia, and to allow Sabah to play a greater role in shaping her own as well as national policies.
With the above in mind, DAP Sabah therefore proposed changes, as the first steps towards building a better Sabah, a stronger Malaysia, a “New Federation” in the memorandum.