PANDIKAR Amin Mulia should resign as Dewan Rakyat Speaker if he wants to debate Sabah’s rights under the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63) with Parti Warisan Sabah president Shafie Apdal, state opposition leaders said today.

Warisan vice-president Junz Wong criticised the Speaker for failing to be impartial and challenging the Semporna MP to an open debate.

“We are quite surprised as to why Pandikar would lower himself to become political. As the Dewan Rakyat Speaker, he is supposed to be impartial.

“He must first pass a motion to talk about MA63 in Parliament and step down if he truly wants to debate the subject with Shafie ,” Wong said in a press conference today at the Sabah legislative assembly.

Pandikar and Sabah are quarrelling over the status of Sabah and Sarawak, which formed Malaysia together with the Malay federated state in the peninsula and Singapore in 1963.

At a MA63 forum on November 12, Pandikar said Sabah shared equal status with the states of Malaya. Shafie had called the statement stupid, saying Sabah should not be compared with states like Perlis as the Sabah, along with Sarawak, was signatory to the MA63 and therefore an equal partner in the federation.

Sabah Pakatan Harapan chairman Christina Liew, who was present, said the opposition would not fall into Pandikar’s “trap” to debate abolishing Islam as the state’s official religion as that would divide the people of Sabah.

She said most Sabahans were more troubled by bread and butter issues.

Liew said economic issues were why Sabahans were looking at the MA63 and calling for the federal government to honour its provisions for the return of revenue derived from Sabah’s resources.

“Sabah PH is not talking about race and religion. We are talking about the economic aspects, we are not falling into (Pandikar’s trap). What is important is meeting the special rights of the state,” she said.

Warisan vice-president Jaujan Sambokong, Warisan treasurer Terrence Siambun and Warisan deputy youth chief Nicholas Chak were present at the press conference. – November 21, 2017.