YOURSAY | 'Now we know who the politicians who only pay lip service towards restoring Sabah and S'wak rights are.'

Putrajaya fails in attempt to amend Federal Constitution

Cocomomo: Sabahans and Sarawakians should blame their own MPs who abstained from voting for the Federal Constitution (Amendment) Bill 2019. As for Umno and PAS, it is expected.

All this while, these Sabah and Sarawak MPs were subservient to Umno and they still are, as they have shown by abstaining with Umno and PAS.

Pakatan Harapan tried to help restore the status of these two states in the spirit of the Malaysia Agreement 1963. Well, dear Sabahans and Sarawakians, blame your own MPs!

Quigonbond: I like that Harapan finally tried to amend the constitution without first securing its own two-thirds majority. Politically, it adds sympathy when the coalition accepts party-hoppers.

Do this a few times, and people will be fed up with the opposition obstructing reform. Try to work out a consensus next time, and if the opposition does not co-operate, make it their fault.

Specialist Batsman: As a Sarawakian, I think it's a blessing for the bill to be rejected.

The English version of the amendment, if passed, would have restored Sabah and Sarawak as the Borneo States. However, the BM version of the bill still refers to the two states as " negeri-negeri, iaitu...".

It's doubtful whether the bill would have given Sarawak the right to demand a fairer distribution of oil and gas revenue. The bill is completely silent on what “equal status” means.

In fact, I cannot comprehend why the Harapan government was in such haste to try to pass such an important amendment to the Constitution without giving any time to the MPs to engage with the stakeholders - the people from Sabah and Sarawak.

The Way It Was: We definitely need a new Harapan state government in Sarawak to bring development and progress at the next state election that is due in two years.

Sixty years of the BN-Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB) government has not done much, as monies allocated have been plundered and stolen in a territory so rich in oil and timber and other natural resources.

The natives thus don't have decent roads, schools, healthcare, fair prices for food and fair wages for labour. Most living in the interior have no access to clean water, electricity, good schools and healthcare.

Now, with a chance to bring Sarawak back as an equal partner in the federation, these PBB-BN politicians have sabotaged the votes.

Idiocracy: Pretty sure the people of Sabah and Sarawak want greater autonomy, no matter how it is put. But they can’t get it from their MPs.

Mahathir can now suggest a referendum for the people of Sabah and Sarawak, overriding their MPs. That will endear Sabahans and Sarawakians to the prime minister and wipe out the opposition. Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) should have seen this coming.

Wira: The MPs from Sarawak had missed the first step to turn back the clock and restore their status as equal merging entities in the formation of Malaysia. Harapan wanted to restore that status as promised, but their efforts came to nought with the vote.

OceanMaster: Realpolitik at its best; a masterstroke from Mahathir. He took the issue by the horns, called the bluff and walked away clean. It is BN that has to answer to the Sabahans and Sarawakians.

Umno chastise Harapan over constitutional amendment failure

Vgeorgemy: Umno still lives in the ethnocracy era of the BN regime. The political aspirations of Harapan are against the elective dictatorship of the parliamentary majority.

In a parliamentary democracy, the Parliament would express its aspiration through voting, without fear or favour. BN leaders have no choice but to become accustomed to such discussions and voting.

Harapan-majority Houses will have such discussions and voting aplenty. Welcome to Parliamentary democracy in the original taste.

In that tradition, we have seen scores of Brexit resolutions voted down, even those proposed by the UK prime minister in the British Parliament recently. She is still in Brussels negotiating with the European Union.

We have the same tradition of parliamentary democracy and there is no need for any resignations. We would have practised such traditions a long time back, thus avoiding the kleptocracy, kakistocracy and ethnocracy of the BN regime.

There is nothing to be ashamed of. It feels great to have the August House still functioning for us.

Anonymous_1372516784: During BN's era, this amendment or the honouring of MA63 was never entertained by BN.

Now Harapan wants to go ahead step-by-step towards MA63, BN is trying to block it by giving all sorts of nonsense reasons. In short, I can see that BN wanted Harapan to 'beg' it for support to get a two-thirds majority vote.

Just because Harapan does not want to beg them, as the amendment is right for all MPs to support as a matter of fact, BN played the child’s game of abstaining. These BN lawmakers are childish and not mature.

Speaking Sense: Now we know for sure who those politicians who only pay lip service to the restoration of Sabah and Sarawak rights are.

They are the same BN people who are now in GPS, interested as always only in their own agenda and ability to exploit state resources for themselves.

So what is left for us in Sarawak is to make sure we throw out such rubbish in the next Sarawak state elections.

Kookie: Serves Sarawak right, but sadly, Sabah has to suffer for Sarawak's politics. BN has never wanted to share anything with Sarawak and Sabah. They exploited them for 50 years and more.

Harapan really needs to have a two-thirds majority in both Houses of Parliament if it wants to progress.

Hello: Harapan has not failed. If anything, it is Sabahan and Sarawakian opposition MPs who have failed. They have just cut their nose to spite their face.

Another chance to vote for this will be a long time coming, unless the voters of these two states change the opposition MPs to Harapan ones.

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