KUALA LUMPUR – Sabah and Sarawak have been accorded the status of regions and are no longer regarded as states within Malaysia, said Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.
Zahid, who is also the rural and regional development minister, said the relocation of Indonesia’s capital to East Kalimantan made Sabah and Sarawak more strategic and susceptible to be developed as new growth areas.
“The unity government today has a considerable legal and moral obligation towards Sabah and Sarawak,” he said.
Zahid, who is also Umno president, said this in his 2022 Umno general assembly policy speech at the Kuala Lumpur World Trade Centre here, today, which was attended by 2,820 delegates.
Accordingly, the Barisan Nasional chairman said that the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63) needs to be implemented immediately.
“Even though there are some basic things which have been implemented, there are still several matters which form the basis of MA63 that need to be translated for implementation,” he said.
Zahid said that the overflow of development in Kalimantan needs to be worked out immediately so that Sabah and Sarawak will progress more rapidly.
“Since 1963, Sabah and Sarawak have contributed a lot to the country’s economic growth and now is the best time for us to develop both regions in line with the progress of the entire Borneo archipelago including Kalimantan, Indonesia,” he said.
On January 4, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said that today’s leaders need to be persistent in defending the Malaysian spirit in MA63 while doing their level best to honour the agreement which reflects the previous leadership’s wisdom.
Anwar also announced that the allocation for special grants to Sabah and Sarawak, according to Article 112D of the federal constitution, should be reviewed every five years so that the amount becomes more reasonable.
He also agreed that the implementation of any project with a cost of less than RM50 million, in Sabah and Sarawak, should be decided almost entirely by the state governments, subject to compliance with financial regulations. – Bernama, January 13, 2023
