Why Sabah and Sarawak is unlikely to get 35 percent of the Dewan Rakyat’s seat
There is not a single soul in Semenanjung that wants Putrajaya to give Sabah and Sarawak 35 percent of the seats in the Dewan Rakyat.
Nehru Sathiamoorthy
Even if the MA63 agreement has promised Sabah and Sarawak 35 percent of the seats , even if former PM Ismail Sabri had promised that Sabah and Sarawak will get 35 percent of the parliament seats a couple of years ago, even if amongst the first thing that Anwar Ibrahim said when he became the 10th PM of Malaysia is that he will fulfil all the pending MA63 promises, none of it matter, because there is not a single person in Semenanjung, be it a Malay, Chinese or Indian – that wants the Sabah and Sarawak to get anymore seats in the Dewan Rakyat than the ones they already have.
The Malays, Chinese and Indians in Semenanjung might be contentious in every other aspect of their relationship, but if there is one thing that they can all agree on, is that none of them wants Sarawak and Sabah to have a greater percentage of seats in the Dewan Rakyat than what they already have.
The number of seats that you have in the Dewan Rakyat represent the ultimate source of power in the country. If you control the Dewan Rakyat, you can choose the prime minister and you can even amend the constitution. The Malays and non-Malays in Semenanjung have been fiercely competing to control the Dewan Rakyat for the last couple of elections. The competition for the control of the Dewan Rakyat has become so relentless that the Malays and non-Malays have even been willing to risk the goodwill in their relationship and up the ante on the race and religious rhetoric in the peninsular, for the sake of gaining control of the Dewan Rakyat. Considering how much the Malays and non-Malays in the peninsular have risked in order to gain control of the Dewan Rakyat, the last they are going to abide is for the East Malaysians to sashay in and take 35 percent of seats of the Dewan Rakyat like they are entitled to it.
Even PMX Anwar Ibrahim is unlikely to be keen to give the East Malaysians 35 percent of the Dewan Rakyat seats. Anwar has waged a 25 year bruising campaign to conquer Putrajaya. He went to prison twice and endured the sort of humiliation that would have driven a lesser man to suicide to sit on the throne in Putrajaya. Most recently, he had seized 6 opposition MPs in a move that has been widely criticised as shameful in order to strengthen his position in the Dewan Rakyat. Considering all that he has done and sacrificed in order to strengthen his grip on Putrajaya, the last thing we can expect Anwar to do is just give up the fruits of his labour – which he has long toiled for and paid for with his freedom and reputation – to Sabah and Sarawak just like that, just because they believe they are entitled to it.
Power is never given. It has to be taken.
If you can’t take power, you have not earned it by merit.
The United States of America and China are the two most powerful countries in the world not because anyone gave them power . They are powerful because they waited for the opportune time before taking it.
If Sabah and Sarawak want 35 percent of the seats in the Dewan Rakyat, which will put them just 15 percent shy of gaining the ultimate power in the federation, they can’t expect it to just be delivered to them on a silver platter. They will have to earn it.
If Sabah and Sarawak tries to take 35 percent of the Dewan Rakyat seats, it might be a blessing in disguise for Anwar Ibrahim, for finally he will have something that will cause everyone in Semenanjung – be they Chinese, Malay or Indian – to unite and rally behind him, to prevent Sabah and Sarawak from taking away what we want, have and don’t want to give away.
As for the claim that Sabah and Sarawak deserve the 35 percent of the Dewan Rakyat seat by way of right, I am sure that if you put enough lawyers on the case, they will be able to cast aspersions on the claim. After all, the 35 percent of seats was originally promised to Sabah, Sarawak and Singapore during the formation of Malaysia. When Singapore broke away from the federation in 1965, the opinion that Singapore’s 10 percent of the seats in the Dewan Rakyat should go to Sabah and Sarawak is just an opinion. This was never a part of the official agreement.
Sabah and Sarawak have also likely lost the window of opportunity to reclaim 35 percent of the seats in the Dewan Rakyat. The best time for Sabah and Sarawak to have gotten the 35 percent seats in the Dewan Rakyat was in the first two years of Anwar’s reign, when Anwar’s grip on Putrajaya was still shaky. In that period of time, Anwar needed the support of Sabah and Sarawak to maintain his rule of Putrajaya, and thus he might have conceded to the Bornean states’ demands if they had pressed for it.
Today however, Anwar has consolidated his position in Putrajaya. Even without the support of the ruling parties of Sabah and Sarawak, he might still be able to maintain his rule. The fact that he has won handsomely in Nenggiri and Mahkota recently is also an indication that his reign has won over popular support. The fact that he has significantly increased the wages of civil servants and is likely to increase the minimum wage to a handsome RM 2000 in the coming budget, will likely endear him to the masses even more. That the ringgit has been doing unprecedentedly well is also likely boosting Anwar’s popularity to an hitherto unsurpassed high.
That the Bornean states neglected to claim the 35 percent of the seats when they were in an advantageous position vis a vis Putrajaya, but are only now pressing for the claim when they have lost their advantage upon Putrajaya, is ill timed. And timing, as they say, is critical in the matter of a contest of power.
At the state that things stand today, I reckon that if the East Malaysians are ever to get the 35 percent of seats in the Dewan Rakyat, it will only occur after the West Malaysian parties like PH, PN or Umno make inroada in the politics of Sabah and Sarawak.
If PH, PN or Umno become either a part of the ruling parties or the kingmakers in Sabah and Sarawak, then the people of Semenanjung might accept Sabah and Sarawak getting 35 percent of the seats in the Dewan Rakyat.
If peninsular parties like PH, PN or Umno emerge as the ruling parties or the kingmakers in Sabah and Sarawak after the Sabah state election in 2025 and the Sarawak state election in 2026, then it might be possible that Putrajaya will give 35 percent of the dewan Rakyat seats to Sabah and Sarawak. It is possible, because for Putrajaya to give Sabah and Sarawak 35 percent of the seats then, it will be equivalent to Putrajaya giving itself 35 percent of the seats .
Whatever the final solution is, one thing is for sure, the people of Semenanjung – both the people and the leaders alike – are likely only going to accept an arrangement where it will be Semenanjung that will retain the power to rule the federation.
Sabah and Sarawak can dream otherwise, but no such thing is ever going to happen, because in all four corners of the world for as long as history remembers, no one is entitled to power – you must earn it.
To earn power, you must be able to take it, for by merit, power is never given, it can only be taken by those who think they deserve it.
