Umno chastise Harapan over constitutional amendment failure

A chorus of Umno leaders has pounced on the failure of the Pakatan Harapan to get the Federal Constitution (Amendment) Bill 2019 passed in the Dewan Rakyat yesterday.

Umno supreme council member Abdul Rahman Dahlan said de facto Law Minister Liew View Keong had not done his homework.

"VK Liew knows he needs support from opposition MPs to get two-thirds of the votes. Why did he not want to compromise, even if he knows he will not get the votes, and shame the prime minister?" said Rahman in a statement today.

"For some days, opposition MPs have been calling on Liew to find a compromise," he added.

The bill, which was tabled and debated for nearly seven hours yesterday, was part of efforts by the Harapan government to amend the Federal Constitution to restore the original status of Sabah and Sarawak, as enshrined in the agreement for the formation of Malaysia in 1963.

The amendment would have specified all the constituent states of the federation by restoring, with modifications, the position of Clause 2 of Article 1 of the Federal Constitution during the formation of Malaysia in 1963.

It was tabled by Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad for second reading. However, it did not get through the block voting which resulted in 138 MPs supporting the amendment, none rejecting and 59 abstaining.

Annuar Musa (photo, below) took his criticism a step further, cheekily asking the government to resign over the matter.

Dubbing it a “historic failure”, he hailed the joint action of BN, PAS and the ruling Sarawak coalition GPS in abstaining during the vote and thus blocking the bill.

"The government only proposes to amend Article 1(2), which is considered to be a comprehension and cosmetic issue. It does not address the real issues of the people of Sabah and Sarawak," he said.

‘Hurried and reckless manner’

Annuar said the Harapan administration should have discussed the matter at the state assemblies of Sabah and Sarawak.

The Ketereh MP echoed Ismail Sabri's call that the government should include the move on the constitutional amendment in accordance with the content of the Malaysia Agreement 1963. 

Saying that the defeat was yet another slap in Harapan's face, following U-turns in ratifying International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (Icerd) and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Annuar called on the government to either "resign or dissolve the Parliament."

Former Johor MB Khaled Nordin (photo, above) also slammed Harapan's handling of the issue.

"This proposal was made in a very hurried and reckless manner. It has become the norm of Harapan to carry out something without research, consultation and an inclusive approach," he said in a statement today.

"It is very rare for any proposed amendment to the constitution to fail. The BN government's practice was to not carry any amendments if it was not convinced it had enough votes. Harapan has lost its authority and continues to experience a significant loss of trust," Khaled added. 

Party supreme council member and head of Umno legal unit Azalina Othman Said weighed in as well, saying the amendment was voted on "without adequate consultation from concerned parties."

"I believe all opposition MPs, especially from Sabah and Sarawak, welcome the effort to restore Sabah and Sarawak status as enshrined in MA63. However, the proposed amendments would not meet the wishes of the people of Sabah and Sarawak who wanted a more substantive change," said Azalina in a statement today.

She wished that the Harapan government would learn a lesson from this episode and not add to its record of failures.

Putrajaya fails in attempt to amend Federal Constitution

'Make the first step the right one' - opposition MP blasts Article 1(2) bill

More tweaks in the offing if Article 1(2) bill passed, says PM

Constitutional amendment bid fails, and 9 other things that happened yesterday