KUALA LUMPUR – The Malaysian Parliament on Tuesday (Dec 14) passed a number of constitutional amendments to elevate the status of Sabah and Sarawak within the federation.

The move comes just four days before legislative polls in Sarawak, the country’s biggest state.

Four amendments were passed unanimously by all 200 lawmakers present, easily passing the two-thirds approval threshold for a constitutional amendment.

Collectively known as the Malaysia Agreement 63 (MA63) Bill, it was the first major reform measure to be approved since Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob and the main opposition bloc, Pakatan Harapan (PH), inked a memorandum of understanding (MOU) in September.

Under the MOU, PH would either abstain or vote for key government Bills in Parliament, including the budget, as long as a number of policy reforms are implemented by the government.

The government’s 2022 federal budget supply Bill sailed through Parliament on Monday, and the 12th Malaysia Plan, a five-year development plan, was also approved earlier.

The amendments affecting the two states on Borneo island were the first of several proposed constitutional reforms that must be approved by a super-majority vote, or by two-thirds, in Parliament.

The amendments changed certain wordings and definitions in the Federal Constitution, partly restoring it to a version that existed prior to 1976.

The MA63 amendment was pursued by the previous PH government under Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad in 2019, but it failed to secure the necessary majority after 59 lawmakers, many of them from Sarawak, abstained from voting, claiming then that the measure was insufficient.

The amendment recognises Sabah and Sarawak as “Borneo states”, elevating their status as two of the three entities that make up Malaysia, the other being the remaining states on the peninsula.

Sabah and Sarawak had previously been defined only as two of the country’s 13 states.

The measure passed on Tuesday was similar to the one proposed in 2019, but Datuk Seri Ismail’s government added three other amendments.

The others allow MA63 and Malaysia Day to be formally mentioned in the Constitution, as the previous version only refers to the formation of Malaya in 1957 following independence.

Malaysia, which included the two Borneo states and Singapore, came into being six years later in 1963 and Malaysia Day is celebrated on Sept 16 every year. Singapore left the federation in 1965.

Crucially, Sarawak now has the right to define individuals that qualify as “natives” in the state, which goes to the polls on Dec 18, with Gabungan Parti Sarawak – a key supporter of Mr Ismail’s government in the federal Parliament in Kuala Lumpur – looking to retain its super-majority in the state legislature.

Advance voting began in the state on Tuesday, with mostly civil servants and security officials casting their ballots.

Politicians in Sabah and Sarawak have for a long time pursued a campaign to restore the status of the two states as envisioned originally in the Malaysia Agreement in 1963 and also in the federal Constitution promulgated at the time.

The status of the two was later “downgraded” as one of the thirteen states in Malaysia following a constitutional amendment in 1976.

As part of the MOU between the government and PH, the federal government has also undertaken to make changes to the Constitution to impose a term-limit on the post of prime minister, propose a law that would prevent mid-term defections, and also reform the Parliament to make it more independent.

All other reforms are expected to be introduced in early 2022, and approved before July next year.

Mr Ismail’s government retains a slim four-seat majority in the 222-seat Parliament, where two seats remain vacant.

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