SABAHANS do not need committees to tell them of their rights, said Parti Warisan Sabah (Warisan) president Shafie Apdal, adding that their rights were already stated clearly in the federal constitution and the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63).

All Sabahans need, Shafie pointed out, was for Putrajaya to honour and restore the rights.

“All Sabahans know what their rights are. It is already there in the (federal) constitution and the agreement (MA63).

“So you don’t need to form committees to analyse what is due to Sabahans,” he said in reference to the various committees and think-tanks formed by Putrajaya and the state government to look into this matter.

Shafie said the Sabah government only needs to approve a resolution in the state assembly to demand the restoration of lost rights, the steps presently taken by the Sarawak government.

Sarawak has already made it clear it will not discuss state rights with federal ministers below the rank of deputy prime minister.

Sabah opposition lawmakers had a number of times filed the motion to debate the MA63 at the state assembly but were often turned down by the Barisan Nasional (BN) state government.

But not until, Foreign Minister Anifah Aman, the brother of Sabah Chief Minister Musa Aman, formed and chaired the MySabah group about two years ago.

Sabahans subsequently saw the formation of federal and state level committees to look into the the state’s rights.

Anifah recently described a recent meeting between MySabah group, the state rights committee chair Teo Chee Kang and Attorney-General Mohamed Apandi Ali as “encouraging”.

Anifah also quoted Apandi as saying that Sabah may have a case.

This is related to Article 112D of the federal constitution involving the revision of the 40% revenue derived from the state every five years.

MySabah’s own fact finding mission revealed that the federal government had stopped all payments derived from Sabah’s oil revenue since 1974.

Matthew Simon, 46, from Penampang said the formation of various committees on the special rights of Sabah was nothing but just a BN gimmick.

“Whatever the outcome, we will know the restoration of state rights will still be under the control of the federal government. They are highlighting these rights now because the elections are just around the corner,” he said.

Sabah Special Tasks Minister Teo Chee Kang in a statement recently also noted that among other matters discussed with the Apandi was on power generation.

According to Teo, power generation in Sabah was taken by the federal government in 1983, back when the now defunct Berjaya government was in power.

Berjaya was in power since 1976 and was a partner of Barisan Nasional, until it was beaten in the 1985 state elections by the PBS government. – February 13, 2018.