Chong says MA63 committee reviewing special grants to Sarawak, Sabah

KUCHING: The Mal aysia Agreement 1963 ( MA63) technical and steering committees are currently discussing the review of the special grants to Sarawak and Sabah under Article 112(d) of the Federal Constitution.

This was revealed by Pakatan Harapan (PH) Sarawak chairman Chong Chieng Jen who said the decision on this mechanism will be decided very soon.

“The review or revision of the special grants to be given to the state is now in discussion among the MA63 technical and steering committees.

“In principle, everyone agrees that it should be increased and soon, a mechanism wi l l be formulated and a decision will be made,” he told a press conference at DAP Sarawak headquarters here yesterday.

Chong, who is also a member of the MA63 technical committee, pointed out that this proved that PH has already started to right the wrong done by the previous Barisan Nasional ( BN) government who had failed to review the special grants for the past 55 years.

His revelation came about after Santubong MP Datuk Seri Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar’s statement on Saturday that the federal government’s debt to Sarawak is much higher than the federal loans owed by the Sarawak government.

The political veteran had said that the federal government owed Sarawak billions of ringgit in terms of development and administration allocations in view that there had been no reviews of special grants for Sarawak since 1969.

In response, Chong pointed out that Wan Junaidi had been an MP since 1990 until today and was even part of the government backbencher and thereafter in the administration in his capacity as a deputy minister as well as a member of the cabinet.

“Yet, throughout these 28 years, nothing was said or done regarding the review of the special grants,” he said.

He chastised Wan Junaidi for only bringing up this issue now that he is an opposition member in the Parliament.

“He starts to talk about the injustice that was done by his government for the past 50 years since 1969.

“A fair comment to such an act from a person of his standing is that this is hypocrisy of the highest degree.”

Also present at the press conference were former Bintulu MP T i ng L i ng K iew and Chong’s special assistant Sim Kiat Leng.