SARAWAK lawyers today set aside their political differences to offer their legal expertise to the state in its fight to regain lost and eroded state rights in the Malaysia Agreement 1963.

“For Sarawak, we’ll fight all the way. We’ll fight tooth and nail,” Ranbir Singh Sangha, AAS president, said after announcing that the Advocates’ Association of Sarawak would form a task force to assist the state government “to look into all matters related to the Malaysia Agreement 1963 and Sarawak rights”.

The loss of state rights in MA63, the agreement that helped form Malaysia, has been a hot and controversial issue in the last four years.

“Not an inch we will surrender. We are quite firm in our stand (in protecting Sarawak rights),” Ranbir said after leading association members to meet Sarawak Chief Minister Abang Johari Openg at his office.

They offered assistance to fight next week’s legal challenge brought by the national oil company, Petronas, which is seeking the Federal Court’s declaration that it is the exclusive owner of petroleum resources in Malaysia, including Sarawak.

“We wholeheartedly support the protection of the Sarawak state rights. We are forming the task force to assist in any way we can.”

Sharifah Hasidah Syed Aman Ghazali, the state’s assistant law minister, said the AAS legal assistance would not only be confined to the Petroleum Development Act 1974 (PDA), which Petronas is relying on to determine and provide clarity on its rights and position under the act.

“Everything under the MA63.”

Hasidah said the chief minister has consented to the formation of the task force and the state government and the lawyers “will work together” on the rights issues. – June 7, 2018.