It should be Sarawak legislative assembly, we are not a state - speaker

 

Sarawak’s executive branch should decide on whether to remove the word ‘state’ from the Sarawak state legislative assembly or not, said speaker Mohamad Asfia Awang Nassar.

He said he believes that in tandem with the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63), which recognises Sarawak as a region and not one of the federation’s 13 states, the word “state” should be dropped.

“Since we are a region, it is only logical that the word ‘negeri’ be dropped. So the state legislature of Sarawak should be known as Dewan Undangan Sarawak because we are not a state.

“I’ll leave it to the executive (to decide),” he told reporters after the Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB) pre-council meeting in conjunction with the state legislative assembly sitting next week.

Asfia was asked to comment on a Facebook post by Deputy Premier Dr Sim Kui Hian on April 21, who stated that during a recent Hari Raya Aidilfitri open house hosted by the Sarawak legislative assembly, the venue was named “Dewan Undangan Sarawak” instead of the commonly known “Dewan Undangan Negeri Sarawak”.

Sim said the change was to recognise Sarawak as a founding partner of Malaysia and not merely a state.

Meanwhile, Asfia said if the change takes place, he proposes that the members and speaker of the house be called members of Dewan Sarawak and speaker of Dewan Sarawak.

He also rejected the use of the word “wilayah” or region as it would reduce the status of Sarawak to Wilayah Persekutuan Labuan.

- Bernama