KOTA KINABALU: The government has agreed to amend Article 1 (2) of Federal Constitution to restore the status of Sabah and Sarawak as equal partners with Peninsular Malaysia.
Minister of Law in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Liew Vui Keong said the matter will be tabled by the Technical Work Committee for Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63) in Parliament next week.
He confirmed that the Cabinet has given the green light on the proposed amendment last Wednesday.
“This is a big step to realise MA63. We start from the amendment of Article 1 (2),” he said after officiating the 'Restorative Justice - An Alternative To Imprisonment' forum here.
Present were Assistant Education and Innovation minister Jennifer Lasimbang; Council for Sabah Restoration for Justice president Dr KH Tan.
Liew, who is also committe chairman, said the amendment requires two third majority at the Parliament which Pakatan Harapan has 135 members of parliament (MPs).
“We need 148 out of 222 MPs. I believe MPs from Sabah and Sarawak will support the amendment,” he said.
It is learned, the said amendment is one of the ways to restore Sabah and Sarawak status before amendment to the Constitution was made in 1976.
Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad had said during Malaysia day last year, that the "New Malaysia” would restore status of Sabah and Sarawak as equal partners after a study on MA63 has been completed.
Earlier in his speech, Liew said there are 66,222 inmates in the country's prisons, with 56 per cent of them detained for drug-related offences.
"Out of that, a total of 1,281 are facing death sentence and 932 of them are related to drugs." he said.