Stay out of Sabah, Sarawak’s affairs, PAS info chief told

A Parti Gagasan Rakyat Sabah leader has warned PAS information chief Ahmad Fadhli Shaari against interfering in Sabah and Sarawak’s political affairs, with the government set to allocate more parliamentary seats to the two states.

Gagasan Rakyat vice-president Masiung Banah accused Fadhli of trying to incite enmity between the Bornean states and Putrajaya in cynically commenting on the move.

“We have the right to demand one-third of parliamentary seats because that is enshrined in the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63).

“It doesn’t matter which prime minister announces the constitutional amendment to allow for the addition of seats, because the ‘Borneo bloc’ has been demanding for this right under MA63 for a long time,” he said in a statement.

The Kuamut assemblyman maintained that Sabah political parties respected all of their counterparts in the peninsula, including PAS, but Fadhli’s remarks were unacceptable.

Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim announced on Sept 11 that the government will amend the constitution to allow for an increase in parliamentary seats in Sabah and Sarawak in accordance with MA63.

On Monday, Fadhli warned Sabah and Sarawak leaders not to “plunge down the ravine with Anwar”.

Masiung said Fadhli should preserve PAS’s integrity and leave it to Sabah and Sarawak’s leaders to make the right decisions for their states.

“PAS’s fanatical approach has no place in Sabah and Sarawak. The people of Borneo are already renowned for our spirit of unity and mutual respect despite having different political leanings.”