Kota Kinabalu: Warisan Supreme Council Member Mazliwati Abdul Malek Chua (pic) hit out at the Prime Minister’s proposal to allocate Sabah and Sarawak’s parliamentary seats based on population ratio, saying it disregards constitutional protections granted when the two states formed Malaysia.
“It is quite daunting to hear the Prime Minister repeatedly say that we should look at the ratio. The question is not simply what the ratio is, but why that ratio was established in the first place.
“We should look at the rationale behind the original arrangement, rather than using the ratio itself as the reasoning,” said Mazliwati, a lawyer and MA63 activist, in response to the Prime Minister’s remarks on Friday.
Mazliwati said Sabah and Sarawak did not form Malaysia merely as territories whose parliamentary representation would later be determined by population alone, adding that the constitutional arrangements were designed to safeguard their interests within the Federation.
She cited United Nations Resolution 1541(XV), which recognised integration with an independent state as one way a territory could achieve a full measure of self-government, but only on the basis of complete equality between the peoples involved.
Referring to the Cobbold Commission and the constitutional arrangements that followed it, Mazliwati said these had recognised concerns raised by the people of North Borneo, now Sabah, and Sarawak about their position in the proposed Federation.
She said the original parliamentary arrangement served a purpose that went further than arithmetic, giving the Borneo territories political protection so they could not simply be overridden by the larger Malayan bloc.
She added that the issue of one-third representation could not be reduced to a question of population ratio.
The more important question was what constitutional protection Sabah and Sarawak required to enter Malaysia as equal partners, and whether those protections still exist today.
Mazliwati pointed to paragraph 165 of the Cobbold Commission report, which states that representation of the Borneo territories in the Federal Parliament should take into account not only their population but also their size and potentialities.
“Sabah and Sarawak have a much larger landmass to govern and protect, yet we have been given less than one-third of the parliamentary voice. Representation should not be based on population alone. Our geography and the responsibilities that come with it must also be taken into account,” she said.
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