WARISAN deputy president Datuk Darell Leiking has called for a special legislative assembly sitting in Sabah to invoke Article 8 of the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63).
This comes amid talk that the state government should file an official letter of claim to Putrajaya on its rightful 40% share of the revenue taken from resources in Sabah's territory.
Leiking, who is assemblyman for Moyog, said the ratification of Article 8 by the state assembly would be the best legal option to compel the federal government to comply with the Federal Constitution.
He said the establishment of various federal-state committees over the MA63 issue clearly indicates that there are matters that remain unresolved over state rights.
“The constitution includes Sabah’s rightful claim to 40% of the revenue the federal government collected from Sabah as stated under Article 112C and Part IV of the Tenth Schedule of the Federal Constitution and the same was also clearly spelt out in the IGC report which is an inherent part of the MA63 and the Federal Constitution.
“Then this is the reason why Article 8 of the MA63 should now be invoked as the state and its citizens are all stating the legal facts that the federal has failed to implement its duties, obligations and reciprocal promises when Sabah agreed form the Federation of Malaysia in 1963,” he said.
Article 8 of MA63 states that the governments of the Federation of Malaya, North Borneo (Sabah) and Sarawak can take legislative, executive or other actions as may be required to implement the assurances, undertakings and recommendations contained in Chapter 3, and the Annexes A to B of the Report of the Inter-Governmental Committee (IGC) signed on February 27, 1963, in so far as they are not implemented by the express provision of the constitution.
Chapter 3 of the IGC Report’s Financial Provisions (8) clearly stipulates Sabah’s right to 40% of the revenues, as well as provision to appoint an independent assessor should both negotiating parties not find a consensus.
Contradictory statements from Ewon, Masidi
Leiking said Sabah now has more clout to demand for the implementation of the 40% revenue entitlement with MA63 being entrenched into the Federal Constitution following a parliamentary move at the end of 2021.
Sabah and Sarawak have been officially recognised as equal partners with Peninsular Malaysia in light of amendments to Article 1(2) and Article 160(2) of the constitution in December 2021.
The amendments subsequently received royal consent in February 2022.
They resulted in the incorporation of MA63 which established the reference points on the rights of the Borneo states, namely Sabah and Sarawak, in the Federation of Malaysia.
As such, Sabah’s rights, which were previously recognised only as pre-constitutional documents and therefore lacking the status of having constitutional rights, can now be directly invoked as legally and constitutionally valid following the amendments.
Such documents refer to the MA63, the IGC Report, the Cobbold Commission, and the 20 and 18-point agreements which made up the basis for the formation of Malaysia in 1963.
The 20-point agreement contains terms drawn up by Sabah in 1963 for its incorporation into the new federation called Malaysia, while the 18-point agreement contains the terms set by Sarawak.
Upko president Datuk Ewon Benedick recently called on the Sabah government to file an official letter of demand to Putrajaya on the state’s revenue entitlement.
State Finance Minister Datuk Seri Masidi Manjun responded that the state will do so when it obtains all the missing data related to the amount of revenue the federal government has obtained from Sabah.
Leiking said that he found the two assertions to be contradictory.
He said the formation of the MA63 committees should have been to deal with such unresolved issues, but the recent chatter seems to point out that the efforts have gone the opposite way.
Stop the ‘political poetries’
He added that the committees should also be the venue where the state government can obtain the missing data on revenue sources from Sabah, but this has not happened.
“I wonder why there has been no revelation by the federal government of such information despite the MA63 committees being endorsed by the state and federal,” he said.
“The committees should have acted in the interest of Sabah,” he said.
Leiking said that members of each committee should not play “political poetries” unless they have not been told of the essential information and data within the committee itself.
He concluded that it all means that the committees have essentially failed as the crucial figures were not revealed.
“Warisan is not privy to what has transpired in the federal and state MA63 committees, especially after the dreadful Sheraton Move, but stands on its position that since so many are talking of the 40% claim and the failure by the federal to perform its part of the MA63, ratifying Article 8 of the MA63 should be the right legal move as it will compel Putrajaya to comply with the Federal Constitution.”
“This should be done at the state assembly where I believe not any state assembly representatives will reject,” he said.
He added that this would also provide the chance for Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor, who heads the Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) and Ewon, who is part of ally Pakatan Harapan (PH), to achieve what is needed.
This is not the first time that Leiking has proposed to the state to invoke Article 8 of MA63.
He had raised the matter in the legislative assembly in December 2022 during the state budget debate speeches, but nothing had been done on his call since then.
Leiking said the time has passed for political parties or leaders to take credit on MA63, and they should instead work to realise the terms. – The Vibes, January 25, 2023
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