London mission team finds documents on Sarawak in ‘Migrated Archives’

The team has found documents on the formation of Malaysia, including the minutes of meetings of the Inter-Governmental Committee (IGC), leading to the publication of the IGC Report.

PETALING JAYA: The Sarawak research mission team to London has obtained documents on the “Continental Shelf”, which confirm the ownership rights of the state to the natural resources on the seabed and in the subsoil of the continental shelf within the boundaries of Sarawak.

Chief Minister Abang Johari Openg had on July 1 announced that the state would send a team of lawyers to London to search for any study and reference related to the state’s rights under the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63).

Assistant Minister of Law, State-Federal Relations and Project Monitoring Sharifah Hasidah Sayeed Aman Ghazali, the research mission team leader, said these were among the items that the team had come across during a thorough study of the documents originating from Sarawak before Sept 16, 1963, but classified by the colonial administration as “secret” or “confidential”.

She said the documents were from the “Migrated Archives” – documents that have been declassified by the UK government and stored in the British National Archives, reported the Borneo Post.

Sharifah Hasidah said this after her team had briefed Abang Johari on their findings in Kuching on Aug 9.

The chief minister had said the research mission to London was a continuation of former chief minister Adenan Satem’s efforts to retrieve the state’s rights as embodied under MA63.

“This agreement is not simply an agreement – we want to get the facts right because if we want to make a claim, we must do our homework; otherwise, we are just shooting at the target without hitting it,” Abang Johari was quoted as saying then.

Sharifah Hasidah said the research team had also obtained the British government’s cabinet papers relating to the Cobbold Commission’s Report and its views on granting Sarawak’s independence on the formation of the new Federation of Malaysia.

She said the team also found documents on the formation of Malaysia, including the minutes of meetings of the Inter-Governmental Committee (IGC), leading to the publication of the IGC Report.

“The state government is studying these documents to ascertain the basis for the recommendations contained in the IGC Report of the constitutional safeguards for Sarawak and what further actions that need to be taken in order to have them fully implemented under Article VIII of the Malaysia Agreement – if they had not been already incorporated in the Federal Constitution or by executive, legislative or other action since Sept 16, 1963,” the Borneo Post quoted Sharifah Hasidah as saying.

She said the documents found by the team would add strength to the state’s position in the discussions with the federal government on devolution of power, and towards the resolution of various constitutional matters under deliberation in these talks. -FMT