KUCHING: The recently passed Constitution of the State of Sarawak (Amendment) Bill, 2025 to increase the number of ministers for Sarawak is necessary and an urgent priority considering the rapid developments taking place in the state.
Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP) Youth Central vice chairman Kelvin Hii said it is to ensure that the state’s progress is not impeded.
“In the past, the constitution limited the number of state executive councillors (ministers) in Sarawak to a maximum of 10. Under current circumstances, many matters need to be expedited to avoid hindering the state’s development thus making it necessary to increase the State Cabinet’s manpower.
“Considering how Sarawak is as large as Peninsular Malaysia, more state executive councillors are needed to advance numerous projects which will enable faster development for the state,” he said in a statement today.
Touching on how the Democratic Action Party (DAP) Sarawak’s opposing the Bill, Hii said the arguments made are invalid particularly on how they claimed existing ministers are sufficient and questioned the capability of existing ministers.
He pointed out that Penang has 40 assemblymen with 10 state executive councillors appointed which accounts for 25 per cent while Selangor has 56 assemblymen with 10 state executive councillors which account for 17.8 per cent.
He also said Perak has 59 state assemblymen with 10 state executive councillors, representing 16.9 per cent whereas Sarawak currently has 82 state assemblymen but only 10 executive councillors, representing merely 12.2 per cent.
“Sarawak passed a legislation earlier this year to increase state assembly seats from the existing 82 to 99. After the increase, adding four new ministers would only represent 14.4 per cent of the total number of assemblymen.
This demonstrates that increasing the number of ministers in Sarawak is reasonable and justified.
“In DAP Sarawak Socialist Youth’s statement, they even attempted to mislead the public by conflating deputy ministers and political secretaries which is incorrect as they are not included in the constitutional discussion,” he said.
Hii said all proposals that benefit Sarawak’s development should be supported by the people of Sarawak.
With the increase in number of state executive councilors, he said it will further improve governance efficiency and Sarawak will be able to achieve its development goals more rapidly.
“If one only sees this as a matter of political power distribution, this will not make Sarawak better but instead indirectly impede the state’s development,” he added.
