Don’t treat Sarawak like a colony, MP tells Putrajaya

Sarawak claims it is entitled to impose 5% sales tax on petroleum products. (Bernama pic)

KUCHING: A Sarawak lawmaker has chided Putrajaya for treating the state like a “colony”.

Sibuti MP Lukanisman Awang Sauni said if Putrajaya was sincere in restoring equal partner status to Sarawak, it should give the state what it was due under the Federal Constitution.

“An example is the 5% sales tax on petroleum products which Petronas had failed to pay. We had to bring the matter to court when we tried to reclaim it from Putrajaya based on the constitution.

“We are not even asking Putrajaya to fulfil its promise to give 50% of all taxes collected in Sarawak and 20% of oil royalties to the state government.

“We were only asking them to return Sarawak its rights,” he said on the sidelines of a forum on “Malaysia’s Future Prospects and Challenges” here yesterday.

Lukanisman warned Putrajaya that failure to honour the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63) would be a stumbling block to Malaysia becoming a better country.

He said the federal and state governments, regardless of their political differences, must work together for the benefit of the country and the people.

Sibuti MP Lukanisman Awang Sauni.

Lukanisman also said there was a possibility Putrajaya would re-table the same amendment to Article 1(2) of the Federal Constitution that was not supported by Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) in Parliament last April.

He said Putrajaya seemed to be firm with its decision to re-table the same bill and had even claimed the amendment was supported by Sarawak Chief Minister Abang Johari Openg.

The original bill, which sought to restore the status of Sabah and Sarawak as equal partners to Malaya, was defeated after Pakatan Harapan (PH) failed to secure the two-thirds majority needed for the amendment to be made.

A total of 138 MPs voted for the bill – 10 short of the two-thirds majority. Eighteen of the MPs who abstained from voting were from GPS.

GPS had proposed its own amendment after claiming that “MA63” was not mentioned in the constitution. The proposed change read: “The states in the federation shall be, pursuant to the Malaysia Agreement 1963, (a) Malaya (Johor, Kedah, Kelantan, Melaka, Negeri Sembilan, Pahang, Perak, Perlis, Pulau Pinang, Selangor, and Terengganu); and (b) the Borneo states of Sabah and Sarawak.”

Lukanisman pointed out the importance of amending the wording for Sabah and Sarawak to be equal partners with Malaya.

Otherwise, he said the promise to restore the equal partners status would just be “sweet-talk” by Putrajaya.

“GPS will stick to its decision of having the phrase ‘in pursuant to Malaysia Agreement 1963’ included in the amendment,” he said. - FMT