SARAWAK’S pro-independence politician Voon Lee Shan has urged the state government to take the cue from the descendants of the last Sulu sultan and sue Putrajaya for breaches of terms and conditions under the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63).

The Parti Bumi Kenyalang president said even the United Kingdom, being the colonial administrator, could be similarly dragged to court.

“A failure to do so should be seen by Sarawak people as the inability of the Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) government to protect Sarawak rights,” Voon said in his reaction to last Tuesday’s Spanish arbitration court’s ruling that Malaysia pay US$14.92 billion (RM62.59 billion) to the descendants of the last Sulu sultan for violating a 1878 agreement signed by Sultan Jamal Al Alam, Baron de Overbeck and the British North Borneo Company’s Alfred Dent.

Malaysia reportedly had stopped paying the sultan of Sulu’s heirs their annual RM5,300 cession money since 2013 following the armed incursion by the so-called Sulu army into Lahad Datu.

“Sarawak under Gabungan Parti Sarawak should take a serious look at the claims by the descendants of the last Sulu sultan,” said Voon.

He said the fact that the federal and state governments of Sabah and Sarawak have formed steering committees to deliberate and overcome the breaches leading to recent amendments to the Federal Constitution is “a clear admission or acknowledgement by the federal, Sarawak and Sabah governments of the breaches of the terms and conditions of MA63”.

“This should be used by the Sarawak government to make the federal government liable for damages, loss of revenues, oil and gas and other rights that Sarawak had suffered caused by the breaches,” he added. – March 2, 2022.