KOTA KINABALU: The Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) state government should emulate Sarawak and rename the chief minister position to “premier”, says Sabah STAR secretary-general Edward Linggu.

       He said the Sabah state assembly needs to discuss this and take a stand in support of the Sarawak assembly’s constitutional motion Tuesday (Feb 15) to replace the term “chief minister” with “premier” and change “assistant minister” to “deputy minister”.

       Linggu said that as a provincial federation partner in Borneo, Sabah will also need to make constitutional amendments following the approval to amend the Federal Constitution in Parliament last year.

       “The amendment to the Federal Constitution places Sabah and Sarawak on a list of two separate Borneo provinces from the list of states in Malaya,” Linggu said in a statement Tuesday.

       Sabah STAR is part of the GRS coalition.

       Linggu, said that as soon as Parliament approved the constitutional amendment last year, Sabah STAR president Datuk Seri Dr Jeffrey Kitingan had also proposed that the name of Yang di-Pertua Negeri Sabah be returned to its original form of “Yang di-Pertua Negara Sabah” that was changed in 1976.

       He said the suggested change in name of the chief minister’s post is in accordance with the Federal Declaration of Malaysia in Kota Kinabalu which named Tun Fuad Stephens as the Prime Minister of North Borneo (Sabah).

       “We hope that when a motion is tabled for the amendment to Sabah’s Constitution to make the changes, we get the full support of all assemblymen,” Linggu added.

       Linggu also suggested that the Sabah assembly should gazette Aug 31 as Sabah Day.

       This would be in accordance with the approval of the Sabah state assembly in 1963, which states the date as Sabah’s independence from the British colonial government.

       He said the constitutional adjustments were needed for matters related to the distribution of national revenue to Sabah as well as jurisdiction to control economic resources and international trade.

       Linggu said the adaptation of the constitutional amendment will elevate the status of Sabah and Sarawak as separate provinces in Borneo, governed by Cabinet Ministers with a system of higher status than states in Peninsular Malaysia.