Pakatan Harapan involved in MA63 reforms too, not just Warisan

27 October 2022

By Wartawan Nabalu News

KOTA KINABALU: All of the 1963 Malaysia Agreement (MA63) reforms so far were made happen with the contribution and commitment from ministers Pakatan Harapan (PH) and not just Parti Warisan Sabah, said Chief Liaison Officer for incumbent KK MP office, Kaven Lee.

Kaven expressed that he regretted that Warisan solely claimed the credit for propagating the selective narrative of the MA63 reforms in between 2018 and 2022 without acknowledging the sweat and tears of PH together.

"The previous PH federal government has initiated the tremendous efforts to implement the salient provisions as provided for in the MA63 with a total of 21 items being identified as requiring actions.

"At the end, 17 out of the 21 items were agreed upon and resolved! At this juncture, I wish to emphasize that all the MA63 reforms achieved so far is not a single party's contribution.

“There is no doubt that the late Datuk Liew Vui Keong from Warisan was instrumental in this MA63 agenda, but without contribution and commitment from ministers and Pakatan Harapan - DAP, PKR and Amanah - MPs, we wouldn’t have been able to achieve as much! ," he said in a statement.

He stressed that, PH has always committed to the MA63 agenda by having the MA63 committees established within the first 100 days of governing.

Three layers of committees were formed, namely the working committee, technical committee, and steering committee – the incumbent Kota Kinabalu MP Chan Foong Hin sat in the technical committee together with the then Sabah AG, and the late Zainnal Ajamain. The then Prime Minister Tun Mahathir and Sabah chief minister Shafie Apdal sat in the steering committee.

“Without the input and involvement of the members of these committees, it would have been hard to accomplish what we did and get 17 out of 21 agreed upon as it involved complicated negotiations after negotiations with representatives from the federal government and their counterparts making mutual concessions and compromises.

“Furthermore, without the support from the whole of Pakatan Harapan nationwide, little would have been achieved as we would need 2/3 majority to push through constitutional amendments.

“Whilst VK Liew couldn't get the MA63 constitutional amendment done due to lack of GPS support, GPS’s own Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar had retabled an essentially similar MA63 constitutional amendment, and this time it was successfully achieved by through a MOU (which Warisan did not participate and decided to demonise, despite the MoU having brought upon many other institutional reforms such as Undi18 and anti-hopping laws).

“The key takeaway is, to fight for any Sabah or Sarawak rights, the people of Sabah & Sarawak cannot rely solely on Sabah & Sarawak parties’ and MPs. It has to be a joint effort by all MPs, including our brethren from the Peninsula Malaysia. We need everyone to come to a consensus that this is the best for the Federation of Malaysia.

“By Warisan opting to move alone in GE15, I wish Warisan do not pretend they are the only party that had contributed to the MA63 reforms. Selective narrative is unfair to the rest of the parties involved.