The Sabah and Sarawak technical committee is pushing for final meeting in February.
KUCHING: The Sabah and Sarawak technical committee on the devolution of powers is pushing for a final meeting in February.
It is eager to submit its final report to the Cabinet at the meeting through a steering committee, said Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Nancy Shukri in a statement today.
The committee, formally called the Technical Committee on the Devolution of Authority, was formed last June to discuss the devolution of powers to Sabah and Sarawak.
It had sat for the third and final time on Dec 1, 2016.
Nancy said the steering committee, which is co-chaired by her and Foreign Affairs Minister Anifah Aman, is still waiting for the secretariat of the Attorney-General’s Chambers to give a suitable date to sit and elaborate on the technical committee’s report.
Nancy is MP for Batang Sadong, a parliamentary constituency in Sarawak.
Leading the technical committee from Sarawak is Abang Johari Openg, who was recently sworn in as chief minister.
“I am echoing the same tone as the newly-appointed chief minister of Sarawak in pursuing the matter.
“I hope to have the meeting as soon as possible by February of this year so that the steering committee can submit the final report to the Cabinet for their further direction and policy decision,” added Nancy.
Among the matters that were discussed in the technical committee meeting were finance; oil exploration, mining and gas; legislation; land and revenue from land; federal and state works; education and labour; and state public service.
Nancy added some of these issues were “very technical, therefore it takes time” for the technical committee members to agree on it.
Its members are officers from the federal government and the Sarawak and Sabah governments.
The Sarawak technical committee, formed under the late chief minister Adenan Satem, was tasked with identifying the issues of non-compliance from the context of the Inter-Governmental Committee Report (IGC), Malaysia Agreement 1963, Malaysia Act, Federal Constitution and other written reports or documents, such as the Cobbold Commission Report.
The committee will provide recommendations and solutions for the consideration of the federal government in regards to the devolution of powers on Sarawak’s rights under the Constitution. -FMT
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