De facto Law Minister Liew Vui Keong said former Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin should not mislead East Malaysians about the failed constitutional amendment intended to make Sabah and Sarawak as equal partners of Peninsular Malaysia in April last year.

Liew said this on Khairy's claim that Umno and PAS MPs refused to support the amendment as they had wanted something more substantive, causing the bill to be defeated as it failed to get two-thirds majority support in the 222-member Dewan Rakyat.

"All BN MPs, including Khairy, and 19 others from Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) abstained," Liew (above) said in a statement yesterday evening.

"They denied Sabahans and Sarawakians their constitutional right to be recognised as equal partners in this federation.

"At the material time preparatory to the vote, there came only a single request from the opposition.

"GPS requested that five words, 'in accordance with the MA63', be inserted into the main clause instead of in the accompanying explanatory note. That was it.

"The opposition made no noble strive for greater substance as alluded by Khairy (below)," Liew added.

The amendment to Article 1(2) of the Federal Constitution had sought to list the Borneo States of Sabah and Sarawak as one of two territories in Malaysia, which was the original wording in 1963.

This is as opposed to listing them as two of 13 states in Malaysia, an amendment that was made in 1976.

The logic was that the wording would recognise East Malaysia as an equal partner to West Malaysia but the amendment failed after the federal government declined to add an additional reference to the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63).

"The amendment to Article 1(2) will allow for the successful implementation of the MA63, enshrining in the Federal Constitution that Sabah and Sarawak are equal partners in this federation and thus deserving equal rights. But the opposition’s actions in April 2019 are clear: they do not have the belief that Sabah and Sarawak are capable of becoming equal partners.

"The truth is the opposition failed every Sabahan and Sarawakian by their actions in the Dewan Rakyat. They punished the Bornean states, and attempted to prevent the successful implementation of the MA63.

"I call on Khairy to cease misleading Sabahans and Sarawakians. Throughout his tenure as a minister under the BN government, he did not once propose a constitutional amendment to safeguard the rights of Sabahans and Sarawakians.

"He should not now appear to champion their rights for political mileage," Liew said.

He added that Putrajaya now plans to retable the constitutional amendment in Parliament in March 2020 and he believes that it will be passed, with Sarawak Chief Minister Abang Johari Openg, who also leads GPS, having expressed his support.