Umno gleefully chastise Harapan over constitutional amendment failure

A chorus of Umno leaders have pounced on the failure of the Pakatan Harapan to get the Federal Constitution (Amendment) Bill 2019 passed in the Dewan Rakyat yesterday.

Umno supreme council member Abdul Rahman Dahlan said de facto law minister Liew View Keong had not done his homework.

"VK Liew knows he needs support from opposition MPs to get two-thirds of the votes. Why did he not want to compromise even if he knows he will not get the votes and shame the prime minister?" said Rahman in a statement today.

"For some days, opposition MPs have been calling on Liew to find a compromise," he added.

The bill, which was tabled and debated for nearly seven hours yesterday, was part of efforts by the Harapan government to amend the Federal Constitution to restore the original status of Sabah and Sarawak, as enshrined in the agreement for the formation of Malaysia in 1963.

The amendment would have specified all the constituent states of the federation by restoring, with modifications, the position of Clause 2 of Article 1 of the Federal Constitution during the formation of Malaysia in 1963.

It was tabled by Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad for second reading. However, it did not get through the block voting which resulted in 138 MPs supporting the amendment, none rejecting and 59 abstaining.

Annuar Musa took his criticism a step further, cheekily asking for the government to resign over the matter.

Dubbing it a “historic failure”, he hailed the joint action of BN, PAS and the ruling Sarawak coalition GPS in abstaining during the vote and thus blocking the bill.

"The government only proposes to amend Article 1(2), which is considered to be a comprehension and cosmetic issue. It does not address the real issues of the people of Sabah and Sarawak," he said.

‘Hurried and reckless manner’

The Ketereh MP said that the Harapan administration should have discussed the matter at the state assemblies of Sabah and Sarawak.

He echoed Ismail Sabri's call that the bill should clearly reference the "spirit of the Malaysia Agreement of 1963" and have been referred to a parliamentary special select committee.

Saying that the defeat was yet another slap in Harapan's face, following U-turns in ratifying International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (Icerd) and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Annuar called on the government to either "resign or dissolve the parliament."

Former Johor MB Khaled Nordin also slammed Harapan's handling of the issue.

"This proposal was made in a very hurried and reckless manner. It has become the norm of Harapan to carry out something without research, consultation and an inclusive approach," he said in a statement today.

"It is very rare for any proposed amendment to the Constitution to fail. The BN government's practice was to not carry any amendments if it was not convinced it had enough votes. Harapan has lost its authority and continues to experience a significant loss of trust," he said.

 - Mkini