With its current 'mere' 25%, it will be meaningless to competing federal coalitions in the event of a tie in the general election, says Jeffrey Kitingan.He said this was crucial to protecting the interest of states, in particular Sabah and its people.
He said currently Sabah and Sarawak held 25% of the parliamentary seats which was less than than ‘even a 1/3 right to vote.’
He views this as a deliberate attempt to stop Sabah and Sarawak leaders from having a voice in parliament and that in the event of a unity government happening in West Malaysia, the 25% is an “unconscionable percentage for equitable representation.”
“West Malaysian leaders can continue to erode our rights or pass laws which could be deemed to be oppressive against Sabah and Sarawak because there are a total of 166 West Malaysian seats out of the total 222, with only 56 seats for Sabah and Sarawak.
“That is 25% of the total. This stops us from having even a 1/3 right of veto. We can no longer go back to the equation used in 1963 because if we were to pitch our seats against population, we should have more than Sarawak as we now have a larger population than them.”
“UBF therefore proposes that we increase parliamentary seats to 256, leaving the 166 for West Malaysia and giving 45 seats each to Sabah and Sarawak.
“We should do this before the 13th general election,” he stressed. At present Sabah has 25 parliamentary seats while Sarawak has 31.
UBF to insist on 35% seats
Jeffrey pointed out that the continuous denying and suppressing of Sabah and Sarawak’s right to be heard in the parliament is tantamount to a breach of the federal government’s promises under Article 8 of the Malaysia Agreement that was signed in London in 1963.
“This amounts to an abuse of our human rights as well as political oppression against the people of Sabah and Sarawak. The matter will be raised by the Common Interest Group Malaysia (CigMa) at the international level this year.
“It will be one of the questions raised of whether or not the Malaysia Agreement has been breached so as to make it now null and void,” he said.
Speaking at its ‘Borneo Tea Party’ gathering in Pitas, Kudat, he said he would persist with his demand for at least 35% of parliamentary seats for Sabah and Sarawak.
Jeffrey is also currently the CigMa chairman and is being represented at the international level by Daniel John Jambun.
Other issues raised included recent arguments raised by UBF pertaining to the failure of Sabah Development Corridor (SDC) and the unfair cabotage issues pertaining to open sky policies.
Since Sabah and Sarawak combined in very much bigger in mass compared to West Malaysia and their are equal partners, then WHY do we people here need to under their control???
ReplyDeleteSome of our local Sabahans are simply lazy and with TAK APA attitude. They only rely on outsider to do work for them. That is why they rely on the party semenajung instead of local party.
ReplyDeleteThis people can surrender our rights to the malayan that hard-fought by our forefather. In fact, they are the traitors to Sabahans!
Jeffrey, are you willing to fight for Sabahans?
ReplyDeleteapa yang penting adalah kepentingan rakyat Sabah dan Sarawak dapat dijaga dengan sebaiknya.
ReplyDelete45 setiap negeri Sabah dan Sarawak. Bagus juga cadangan tersebut.. Tapi biarlah kerajaan memikirkan cadangan ini.
ReplyDeleteJK memberikan idea untuk menambah kerusi di Sabah dan Sarawak. Tapi kalau kerusi ditambah pun tapi masalah rakyat tidak dapat diselesaikan rasanya tidak perlulah.
ReplyDeleteFair and square.
ReplyDeleteini mgkin perlu bagi memastikan kuasa Sabah di parlimen.
ReplyDeletekarulnaim said...
ReplyDeleteJK memberikan idea untuk menambah kerusi di Sabah dan Sarawak. Tapi kalau kerusi ditambah pun tapi masalah rakyat tidak dapat diselesaikan rasanya tidak perlulah.
Lucu.. belum bertempur sudah mengalah. melayu juga yg buat pepatah 'belum cuba belum tahu'. Kenyataan encik budiman Karulnaim ini ternyata memperlihatkan kebodohan diri sendiri. walaupun kamu bermaksud penambahan kerusi adalah tidak perlu jika semuanya dikuasai oleh umno/bn tapi sekurang-kurangnya semua kawasan di Sabah dan sarawak boleh diperkecilkan supaya pembangunan lebih mudah utk dicakupi. tambahan pula, kuasa mengundi bukan di tangan kamu. zaman ini sudah moden, hanya segelintir org yg berfikir menggunakan perasaan seperti kamu. yg lain semuanya berfikir menggunakan otak. ia ternyata perbezaan yg jauh. fikir2lah.
We are not Malays.Thank you.
ReplyDeleteYang penting hak Sabah dipertahankan.
ReplyDeleteI think this is a good deal.
ReplyDeleteBoleh dipertimbangkan.
ReplyDelete