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KUCHING: The Sarawak opposition said today that it could not support the second part of the Sarawak State Constitution Bill 2020 (Amendment) to define “resident in the state” due to its ambiguity.
Ba Kelalan Assemblyman Baru Bian said he spoke on behalf of Parti Sarawak Bersatu (PSB) and DAP, where they had no objection to the first part of the amendment, which was to lower the age at which a person can participate in the state elections from 21 to 18 years old.
“Although we know that the second part was to ensure that only the inhabitants of Sarawak were eligible to be members of the state assembly, the proposed amendment to Article 16-2 (2) (a) and (b) remains ambiguous.
“We cannot define a person solely on the basis of his place of birth and the place of birth of one or both parents and vice versa,” he said while debating the bill in the state assembly that meets here today.
He added that a child born outside of Sarawak, whether in Sabah, the peninsula or abroad, to one or both parents who are Sarawakian, would make the child a natural Sarawakian by birth or by any other definition.
“On the other hand, a child born in Sarawak to both parents who were also born in the state but are Sabahan or Penangite who happened to be in Sarawak during childbirth and have not naturalized as Sarawakian cannot be considered or accepted as Sarawakian as suggested. the definition prescribed in the current content of the proposed amendment.
“Meanwhile, a child whose parents or parents were born in Sarawak but remain Sabahans or Penangitas and yet define themselves as Sarawakians, therefore, is eligible to be elected as a member of the state assembly,” he said.
Baru said that without a clear definition description beyond the place of birth and the normal place of residence, the same person can vote and technically be eligible to be a member of the Sarawak and Sabah state assembly at the same time by virtue of the fact that is a Sabahan by nature (Sabahan parent / parents), but also Sarawak by birth and place of residence as prescribed in the proposed amendment.
Citing Clare Rewcastle-Brown as an example, the writer and owner of the online portal Sarawak Report, who was born in Sarawak and assuming she has a son born and resides in Sarawak, “won’t that make the child eligible for membership in this august House”?
“Therefore, we cannot support the bill.”
