KUCHING: Sarawak will continue to fight for its right in restoring the allocation of one-third representation for East Malaysia in the 222-seat Parliament, says Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg (pix).
He said it is imperative for the state to restore the status of Sabah and Sarawak as regional partners after the departure of Singapore in 1965 from the Federation of Malaysia.
If Sarawak and Sabah do not have one-third representation each in Parliament or having less than one-third number of the seats, then the constitution has to be amended.
“Sabah and Sarawak should have maintained the one-third out of 222 seats allocation and if this is not the case, power distribution in Parliament leans heavily towards Peninsular Malaysia,” said Abang Johari in an interview with Astro Awani.
Before Singapore broke away from Malaysia in 1965, Peninsular Malaysia had one-third representation, Sarawak 24 seats, Sabah 16 seats and Singapore 15 seats in the parliament.
However after Singapore left the Federation in its allocation of 15 seats was never distributed to Sarawak or Sabah.
At the moment Sarawak and Sabah has 31 and 25 MPs respectively.
