KOTA KINABALU – Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin’s address recently to identify Sabah and Sarawak as territories or regions instead of states are the first few steps by the prime minister in returning to their lost rights back to them.
Sabah Deputy Chief Minister II Datuk Seri Jeffrey Kitingan said the statement from the prime minister was consistent with the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63), which decrees Sabah, Sarawak and the peninsula as three separate but equal entities.
“This identification is neither bad nor good. It is only based on the context to distinguish the three entities that made up Malaysia – Sabah, Sarawak and the Federation of Malaya.
“It would also avoid further confusion over the status of the states. Now we no longer talk about the state of Sabah and Sarawak. But we talk about an equal partnership,” said the agriculture and fisheries minister here today.
The Keningau MP was responding to the government’s plan to identify Sabah and Sarawak as territories and not states.
Jeffrey, however, said that no official word is out on the matter yet.
Jeffrey also clarified that the territories of Sabah and Sarawak are of higher standing than the federal territories of Labuan.
He added there should not be any confusion over the matter as the prime minister was talking about Sabah and Sarawak in the context of Malaysia’s formation. – The Vibes, April 9, 2021
