Quit arguing, let PSC study amendment, says MP

Batang Sadong MP Nancy Shukri.

KUCHING: A Sarawak MP has welcomed the formation of a Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) to look into the implementation of the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63).

It is important for the PSC to deliberate the proposed amendment to the Federal Constitution before it is tabled again, Batang Sadong MP Nancy Shukri said.

MPs had proposed a motion calling for the formation of the PSC during the recent tabling of the bill to amend the constitution to restore the status of Sabah and Sarawak.

However, it was thwarted with 136 MPs voting against it, 60 for it, and one abstaining.

Nancy said Sarawak MPs had never rejected the bill but had wanted the proposed amendment to be brought up before a PSC before it was tabled.

She said arguing about the amendment in public would not resolve the issue.

“Instead of arguing and confusing the people, we should allow the experts on the committee to study the proposals,” she said at a youth event here yesterday.

De facto law minister Liew Vui Keong had announced earlier that a PSC would be established to look into the implementation of MA63.

He said the PSC, comprising selected MPs, would complement the special Cabinet committee on MA63.

“We (the federal government) realise that a committee involving MPs is necessary to ensure the successful implementation of MA63,” he told reporters in Sandakan yesterday. - FMT