KOTA KINABALU: Former foreign minister Datuk Seri Anifah Aman will engage the legal fraternity to find ways for Sabah to achieve equal partnership in the federation of Malaysia.
He was responding to the Dewan Rakyat's failure yesterday to meet the necessary votes of at least 148 out of 222 at the end of a day-long debate on the second reading of the Constitution (Amendment) Bill 2019.
There were only 138 lawmakers who voted for the amendment while another 59 abstained from voting and none opposed the bill.
“Unfortunately, (the Federal Constitution amendment) did not get the two-thirds majority.
“We are not going to stop here and we will be engaging our lawyers on what is to be done next,” said the Kimanis member of parliament after attending the trial of an election petition against him at the High Court, here.
On a statement by Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) MPs that they did not vote on the amendment on grounds that it was not comprehensive enough, Anifah said that it was more important to vote for it as the first step.
Anifah added that he had also supported the motion for the proposed amendment to be referred to the Parliamentary Select Committee.
The independent lawmaker, who resigned from Umno last year, also said that he supported the amendment to Article 2(1) of the Federal Constitution which meant that Sabah was being recognised as one of the equal partners.
“I supported the motion for this (amendment) to be referred to the Parliamentary Select Committee. We should have done that, but we did not get what we want.
“But like other MPs said in Parliament, a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step,” he added.