SARAWAK has given Putrajaya a new deadline to wrap up negotiations on outstanding issues on the compliance of the Malaysia Agreement 1963.

The state wants the federal government to settle all the issues and disputes that have become sticking points in state-federal relationship by the end of next month.

The original deadline was on August 31.

“No point negotiating like the Israelis and the Palestinians, where after 20 years, you still don’t see the light at the end of the tunnel,” said state Speaker Mohamad Asfia Awang Nassar.

Asfia is the chairman of the state bipartisan committee that advises the chief minister on the position to take in the talks in the cabinet special committee.

He said while most of the issues have been resolved, “there are issues where some of the arguments are diametrically opposed to each other”.

“This we allow some latitude to settle until the end of October.”

He said if the issues could not be resolved by that time, “then we think of the next step”.

When asked what the next steps could be, state Tourism, Arts and Culture Minister Abdul Karim Hamzah said: “We’ll take them to court”.

Asfia said it was premature to disclose details of the outstanding issues, but did say the main issue is on oil and gas.

“Principally on oil and gas. Others are ancillary.”

A member of the committee said there are “about 20” outstanding issues that have yet to be resolved.

They include the financial review and making tourism a state matter.

“They (Putrajaya) said they agree in principle to this and that (issues) but I warned that we could not end the negotiations based on those promises,” sadi the committee member, who did not want to be named as he was not authorised to speak.

“I warned them (the committee) that we could be putting ourselves in a dangerous position if we stopped all discussions.”

Chief Minister Abang Johari Openg briefed the committee for nearly two hours on the state’s latest position, the scenario on the negotiation and the content of the final report to review the implementation of the MA63 that was given to him on August 31.

Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Liew Vui Keong said on September 5 in Putrajaya that the MA63 task force had submitted the report to the Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, Sabah Chief Minister Mohd Shafie Apdal, Abang Johari and all committee members for review. – September 13, 2019.