Harris: I wasn’t consulted on 1976 amendment
The former Sabah CM says his party did not rule without pressure from Kuala Lumpur.
“The Parti Berjaya had nothing to do with Article 1(2) being amended” said Harris in statement reported by the Daily Express.
“None of the Berjaya leaders had any part in it following the 6 June 1976 air crash that took the life of Chief Minister Fuad Stephens.”
He stressed that the Sabah Government did not ask for the amendment. “Obviously, we had no control over Parliament,” he said.
He also disclosed that “we in Berjaya did not rule without some pressure from across the South China Sea.”
Harris was commenting on social media articles giving the names of MPs in Sabah and Sarawak who supported the 1976 amendment.
He said that it was not for him to agree or disagree to the amendment “because Parliament had made the decision”.
The amendment gave Sabah and Sarawak a lower status as the 12th and 13 states in the Federation of Malaya from their previous status as equal partners of Peninsular Malaysia in the Federation of Malaysia.
Harris agreed that the Sabah Government could reverse the 1976 amendment by passing a motion in the state assembly and getting the Federal Government to amend the Federal Constitution.
“The opposition can lend its support to get the two-third majority required to pass the amendment,” he said.
Harris’s Berjaya government was defeated in 1985 by Parti Bersatu Sabah, led by Joseph Pairin Kitingan.
The Daily Express report also went into the list of Sabah and Sarawak MPs who voted for the 1976 amendment.
It said that of the 130 MPs who supported the amendment, all 22 from Sarawak were in favour. However, the Hansard does not record votes by Leo Moggie Anak Irok (Kanowit) and Ting Ling Kiew (Bintulu).
Eight Sabah MPs – Kinabalu (Ghani Gilong), Kota Belud (Said Keruak), Kinabatangan (Pg Ahmad Pg Indar), Gaya (Peter Lo), Penampang (James Stephen Tibok), Tuaran (Buja Gumbilai), Tawau (Alex Pang), and Sandakan (Peter Lim) – supported the amendment.
Two MPs from the state, Mustapha Harun (Marudu) and Pengiran Tahir Pengiran Patera (Kimanis), were listed in the Hansard as absent on July 12 and 13, 1976.
The following six Sabah MPs were not mentioned in the Hansard: Madina Unggut (Bandau), Ajad Oyung (Labuk-Sugut), Mohamed Taufeck Asneh (Hilir Padas), Stephen Robert Evans (Keningau), Mohd Salleh Abdullah (Silam) and Abdul Rashid Jais (Ulu Padas).
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The amendment was opposed by four MPs from DAP: Lim Kit Siang, Tan Chee Khoon, Farn Seong Than and Lee Lam Thye.