KUCHING: The Sarawak Consultative Committee on the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63) is prepared to support any amendments to the Federal Constitution or any law that restore the rights and interest of Sarawak stated in the agreement.

Its chairman Datuk Amar Mohd Asfia Awang Nassar, who is State Legislative Assembly (DUN) Speaker, said although they pledged such support, the committee is reserving its comments on the proposed amendment to Article 1(2) of the Federal Constitution.

At a news conference here yesterday, he said the committee had not seen the proposed amendment bill the first reading of which is expected on April 3 and second reading on April 9.

“For the moment, the Consultative Committee would reserve its comments on the matter until after the proposed (amendment) bill has been sighted by members of the committee.

“We will, however, support any amendments to the Federal Constitution or any law for that matter if we are convinced that it contains a substantive improvement to the rights and interest of the State and not merely for the cosmetic purpose of window dressing,” he said after chairing a two-hour meeting at the DUN Complex in Petra Jaya here yesterday.

Asfia stressed that none of the Consultative Committee members had obtained a hard copy of the amendment bill.

“In short, we have not seen the bill although we have been informed (of the proposed amendment).”

He said the Consultative Committee was briefed that the issues being discussed by the Federal MA63 Steering Committee ‘is progressing well although no final decision has yet been made on those issues’.

“We note that these are important issues to the State as well as to the nation. So, we would be prepared to wait and be updated further in accordance with the schedule already agreed by the Federal Steering Committee.

“As the discussions have been classified as ‘Secret’, we are not at liberty to divulge the contents of those discussions at this moment.

“Be rest assured that come the time when the report of the committees have been finalised, we will disclose more to the public,” added Asfia.

On the two-hour meeting, he said it served as an update of the status of the MA63 discussions previously held.

He said that Abang Johari led a delegation on behalf of the State at a meeting of the Federal Steering Committee on March 5.

“Prior to this date, several other meetings had been held by the various committees including the Technical Committee, the Working Committee and its various clusters,” he added.