Emulate Sarawak in tabling motion on state rights — Bumburing

KOTA KINABALU: The state government should emulate what the Sarawak state government is going to do by tabling a motion in the coming Sabah State Legislative Assembly session to get the mandate on action to be taken with regard to Sabah’s State rights as provided for in Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63).

Parti Cinta Sabah (PCS) president Datuk Seri Panglima Wilfred Bumburing in making the call, said among others included Sabah’s rights over territorial sea, the continental shelf and subsoils where oil and gas reserves are found.

He is of the opinion that the state government need not travel to London to examine the relevant documents as they can refer to the documents that were obtained by the Sarawak legal team that made the trip to London.

Among the documents obtained by the Sarawak government were the minutes of meetings of the Intergovernmental Committee (IGC) which became part of the IGC Report and the MA63 itself.

“In any event, we in PCS can also assist the Sabah government in providing them with the relevant documents if needed as we also have obtained copies of the related documents leading to the formation of Malaysia,” he said.

The Tamparuli assemblyman added that along these lines, the state legislative should also give mandate to the state government in respect of the 40 per cent entitlement for Sabah as enacted in Articles 112C and 112D in Part IV of the Tenth Schedule of the Federal Constitution.

And pursuant to Article112D, it is mandated that the 40 per cent entitlement should have been reviewed every five years. The first review was conducted in 1969 with a sum of RM20 million was agreed with an annual increment ending in 1974 as follows: RM20 million in 1969, RM21.5 million in 1970, RM23.1 million in 1971, RM24.8 million in 1972 and RM26.7million in 1973.

In 1974, the second review should have taken place, but unfortunately no review took place that year and no review has ever been made since then. Consequently, the sum of RM26.7 million annually has remained unchanged payable to the state since 1974.

To enable Sabah to receive what is rightfully due to it representing the 40 per cent entitlement, a review must take place first, as stipulated in Article 112D, to make the necessary adjustments on the sum reflective of 40 per cent entitlement of income derived from the state, he pointed out.