THE State Government has officially proposed to the Federal Government to increase the combined number of Sabah and Sarawak parliamentary representatives by up to 35 per cent or 78 seats.
Assistant Minister to the Chief Minister Datuk Nizam Abu Bakar Titingan said the proposal was submitted in August.
“This is one of the matters relating to the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63), which is still under negotiation,” he said during the question-and-answer session at the State Assembly, Wednesday.
Nizam was responding to a supplementary question by Sindumin Assemblyman Datuk Dr Yusof Yacob.
Previously, it was reported that Upko President Datuk Ewon Benedick said the need for an increase of Dewan Rakyat seats for Sabah and Sarawak had been delayed for too long since Singapore left the Federation of Malaysia in 1965.
Currently, both states only account for 56 seats – 25 in Sabah and 31 in Sarawak.
Nizam said other matters still under negotiation are reviewing the annual special grants under Article 112D of the Federal Constitution. He said a formula for the review must be attained within a year before July 18, next year.
“Another negotiated issue is the 40 per cent or two-fifths of the net revenue derived by the Federal Constitution from Sabah, in line with Article 112C and Part IV’s Section 2 of the Tenth Schedule of the Federal Constitution,” he said.
“This amount should be paid after the Federal Government has a strong financial position where the review of the special grant under Article 112D is no longer needed.”
Aside from that, he said, the Sabah Land and Survey Department is also in the process of identifying lands that had been given to the Federation to be returned to the State.
As for the autonomy on health and education, a respective development joint action committee had been set up for both issues to negotiate matters relating to technical and legislation on power decentralisation.
“The process of negotiation and implementation has to go through various stages involving the aspects of legislation, financial administration and organisation structure, among others.
“As such, these claims by Sabah need to be given time to achieve a practical solution that reflects the people’s needs,” he said.
To the original question by Yusof, Nizam disclosed seven matters relating to MA63 had been resolved and implemented.
They are the amendment to Articles 1(2) and 160(2) of the Federal Constitution, empowerment for deep sea licensing and catching to the State Government, power devolution for the management of Sipadan and Ligitan Islands to the State Government, gas administration power devolution, the recognition of the State Works Department as a Technical Department under AP182, the appointment of a State Government representative as an Inland Revenue Board (IRB) member and the power devolution of administering power supply to the State Government on Jan 3, next year.
