Sarawak’s equal partnership within federation no longer up for political interpretation — Ting

MIRI (Feb 4): Equal partnership between Sarawak, Sabah and the Peninsula is no longer a matter of political will, but constitutional law that must be honoured without evasion, said Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP) secretary-general Datuk Sebastian Ting.

He said the party fully supported Works Minister Datuk Sri Alexander Nanta Linggi’s recent remarks on BFM 89.9, and that the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63) now carried the full force of the Federal Constitution and could no longer be treated as symbolic history.

“Let there be no misunderstanding—equal partnership is no longer a matter of political interpretation. It is now entrenched in the Federal Constitution itself.

“The Constitutional (Amendment) Act 2021 formally recognised MA63, the Inter-Governmental Committee (IGC) Report, and redefined ‘Malaysia’ to acknowledge Sarawak and Sabah as founding partners, not subordinate states.

“This amendment decisively ends decades of manufacture ambiguity,” he said in a statement on Monday.

He said despite this clarity, some quarters continued to assert that oil and gas ownership, management and regulation were determined solely by the Petroleum Development Act (PDA) 1974, which was a federal statute enacted 11 years after Sarawak helped to form the Federation.

“A federal law enacted in 1974 cannot supersede rights and safeguards that pre-exist it under MA63, now expressly recognised by the Federal Constitution.

“Treating ordinary legislation as supreme over the Federation’s founding agreement is a direct inversion of constitutional hierarchy,” he said.

Ting said Sarawak was not asking for special treatment, but rather asserting rights that pre-existed the Federation that were never surrendered.

“True partnership demands that federal laws be interpreted in harmony with MA63, not used to override it; that control over natural resources cannot be centralised by default; and constitutional recognition must result in real devolution of authority, not ceremonial acknowledgement.

“Anything less is not unity. Anything less is not a Federation. Anything less is a betrayal of the 1963 constitutional bargain,” he emphasised.