Motion to review Sabah, Sarawak agreements rejected

PARLIAMENT An emergency motion tabled by PKR's Penampang MP Darell Leiking for a special commission to review the 18 and 20 points agreements made with Sabah and Sarawak for the formation of Malaysia was rejected by Parliament today as it is "not urgent".

While acknowledging that the matter is "definite", deputy speaker Ismail Mohamed Said rejected the motion raised under Standing Order 18(1), even though a review has been overdue for 50 years.

Darell said he was perplexed by the reason Ismail gave and argued that the recent Allah ruling by the Court of Appeal, which resulted in conflicting statements from the prime minister and several of his cabinet ministers, as well as several long-standing issues, such as oil royalty, merited a review.

A review of the two 18-point and 20-point agreements with the two Borneo states was initially supposed to be carried out every 10 years from the formation of Malaysia, in order to establish whether all the points in the Malaysia agreement were being fulfilled.

De facto Law Minister Nancy Shukri (right), in a written answer to Darell earlier today on the same matter, said that a white paper on the review was "not needed" because the government has "never neglected" any state since the formation of Malaysia.

However, Darell considered the fact that the deputy speaker allowed him to read out his motion as a positive sign, and said that he would not stop in his quest to have the two agreements reviewed.

"I hope the next time the speaker will deliberate on the matter," Darell said.

Accompanying Darell at the press conference were Sandakan MP Stephen Wong Tien Fatt and Jimmy Wong Sze Phin.

Darell hoped that next time, all Borneo MPs, including those from the BN, will lend their voice to this call to review the agreements.