PKR has accused Putrajaya of dragging its feet over the long drawn out autonomy and rights talks with Sarawak and Sabah.

Batu Lintang assemblyman See Chee How said this was shown by a recent statement by Minister in Prime Minister’s Department Nancy Shukri that they are still waiting for answers to “legal and constitutional” questions from Attorney-General Mohamed Apandi Ali.

“They have been holding meetings after meetings and yet they have nothing to tell the people of Sarawak,” See said of Nancy’s statement.

Nancy co-chairs a state-level technical committee to assist the Sarawak and Sabah governments in the devolution of powers negotiation with Sabah Chief minister Musa Aman.

She recently said the committee “is still waiting for details from the A-G” and the committee had reportedly met at least four times since December last year.

“It looks like Putrajaya is looking for excuses to stretch the talks,” See said.

The PKR Sarawak vice-chairman said it also increasingly looked like Putrajaya is trying to drag the autonomy and rights talk to after the 14th general election (GE14).

See said if Barisan Nasional, led by Prime Minister Najib Razak, wins the election, then “he might not want to commit to the process.”

“Or maybe just drag it for another five years. The promise to give autonomy and return the lost rights is mere lip service. Election sweetener. They are not serious,” he said.

Malaysia’s two Borneo states have been, particularly under former chief minister Adenan Satem, who died of heart complications in February, demanding that the federal government respect all the terms of the Malaysia Agreement 1963.

It could mean some painful decisions for the federal government, such as rescinding and annulling laws like the controversial Petroleum Development Act, which was passed in 1974 to strip Sabah and Sarawak the rights to all its oil and gas.

See also slammed the Sarawak government for losing the urgency to pursue talks with the federal government after Adenan’s death.

“There doesn’t seem to be any sincerity by both the state and federal governments to pursue the issue,” he said.

“They have held so many meetings, why can’t they just give the people (of Sarawak and Sabah) what had been achieved. That’s what people want to hear. Not excuses after excuses.”

Nancy also disclosed yesterday the federal-level steering committee had yet to study the reports submitted by the technical committee.

Nancy, at a Deepavali function in Kuching, said time was needed because some of the matters raised in the meeting the technical committee had with the steering committee three months ago “needed to be relooked into and studied by the federal A-G”. – October 9, 2017.