KOTA KINABALU: A Sabah activist has warned the state government that the creation of a new ministry could be unconstitutional.
Zainnal Ajamain said under the Sabah Constitution’s Article 6(2), the state cabinet shall consist of a chief minister, and not more than 10 nor less than 4 ministers.
“However, currently we have 11 ministries. I think this means the Sabah Constitution had been changed without going through the proper channel,” he told FMT.
The current Sabah cabinet ministers were appointed on May 16 last year.
After taking over the state government, Chief Minister Shafie Apdal replaced Resource Development and Information Technology Ministry with Education and Innovation Ministry, while Community Development and Consumer Affairs Ministry was replaced with Health and People’s Wellbeing Ministry.
The Law and Native Affairs Ministry, the 11th post in the state Cabinet, was announced amid discussions with Putrajaya on the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63).
Zainnal questioned if the creation of an 11th ministry was a breach of the Sabah Constitution.
“They can name any ministry any way they like. I am sure they have their own reasons. However, they cannot change the constitution,” he said.
“They have been using the slogan ‘change’. It seems that they forgot to ‘change’ this one.
“If they said the new ministry is there to help implement MA63, that too is false because the minister is not even part of the federal cabinet steering committee for the MA63,” he said. -FMT
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