Senator backs analyst for Sabah, Sarawak’s one third representation

Senator Robert Lau Hui Yew has come forward to back calls for one third representation for Sabah and Sarawak that was made by political analyst, James Chin.

“Projek Sama’s suggestion for Sabah and Sarawak to have veto power in the Dewan Negara (the Senate) by giving them one-third of the membership each instead of in the Dewan Rakyat is misconceived. We all know that real power lies in the Dewan Rakyat and not the Dewan Negara.

“Projek Sama’s statement paints a misleading picture. It stated that the Senate has veto power. This is not true. The Senate’s power is limited to delaying a Bill from becoming law,”

Projek Sama had pushed for the 1/3rd representation to be in the Dewan Negara only.

He added that several provisions in the Constitution limit the power of the Senate such as the ones on monetary bills.

“As for non-monetary Bills, the Senate can only delay Bills passed by the Dewan Rakyat by a year. It has no veto power,” he said.

“The promises made to the people of Sarawak and Sabah to gain their support for the formation of Malaysia in 1963 must be honoured.

“One key promise is that two-thirds of the seats in Parliament (Dewan Rakyat) be allocated to non-Malayan members to prevent MPs from the peninsula from amending the Constitution unilaterally,” Lau said.

“Of course, Sarawak and Sabah do not mind having one-third representation each in the Dewan Negara. It will be a good starting point to realise the promise of two-thirds representation in Parliament.”