KAPIT: Sarawak Premier Tan Sri Abang Johari Openg today urged the federal government to restore the 35 per cent or one-third of the parliamentary seats allocation for Sarawak and Sabah.
He said this was to prevent amendments to the Federal Constitution regarding the interests of the Borneo states.
During the formation of Malaysia, the combined number of parliament seats among Singapore, Sarawak and Sabah was more than one-third, he said.
He said when Singapore was separated from Malaysia, its parliamentary seats were taken by Peninsular Malaysia, instead of being distributed to Sarawak and Sabah.
"With one-third (parliament seats held by Sarawak and Sabah), we can make sure that MA63 (Malaysia Agreement 1963) remains intact," he said.
"In the Cobbold Commission Report, the word mentioned was 'safeguard'," he said at the together-with-the-local community at the Dewan Suarah Kapit here.
Amendments to the Federal Constitution can only be passed with a two-thirds vote of the total number of members of parliament.
Currently, Sarawak has 31 parliament seats and Sabah holds only 25 seats, for a total of 56 seats or 25 per cent of the total 222 seats.
In the 1964 general election, Sabah, Sarawak and Singapore had 55 seats out of 159 parliamentary seats for a combined 35 per cent of the total seats.
Commission Cobbold was established to determine whether the people of Sarawak and Sabah supported a proposal to create the Federation of Malaysia consisting of Malaya, Brunei, Singapore, North Borneo (Sabah) and Sarawak.
It was named after Lord Cobbold, a former Bank of England governor.
Abang Johari said the founding fathers from Sarawak and Sabah had the wisdom and foresight in safeguarding their interests and rights in Malaysia.