Sabah lawyer schools Warisan on MA63

MySabah adviser Tengku Fuad Ahmad says even Pakatan Harapan would not agree with the stand taken by Warisan.

KOTA KINABALU: A Sabah lawyer has taken Parti Warisan Sabah to task for politicising Barisan Nasional’s pledge to realise the state’s rights under the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63), saying even its allies in Pakatan Harapan would disagree with the Sabah-based party.

Tengku Fuad Ahmad.

“I am appalled by Warisan’s misinterpretation of the spirit, purpose and intent of MA63. The 1963 Agreement was created to bring us together based on the principles of cooperation and consensus. Warisan is now trying to use MA63 to tear Malaysia apart,” said Tengku Fuad Ahmad, legal adviser to Sabah rights group MySabah.

He said the pledge by BN to address Sabah and Sarawak rights by consensus was clearly spelt out in the agreement which brought both states into the Malaysian federation.

“MA63 was concluded on the basis that each of the states of Sabah, Sarawak, Singapore and Malaya would work together in the spirit of cooperation and consensus building in order to achieve an ever stronger Federation.

“Article VIII of the Malaysia Agreement 1963 clearly requires consensus and cooperation between the Federal government and the Borneon states in order to realise the provisions contained in Chapter 3 of and Annexes A and B to, the Inter-Governmental Committee Report 1963,” he said.

He said the Ninth Schedule in the Federal Constitution states that the power to make laws is divided between the federal and state governments.

“Therefore, in order to realise and implement MA63, both the federal and state governments have to sit down and agree on how they will coordinate the exercise of their respective powers in order to achieve the objectives contained in MA63,” Fuad said.

“In this regard, I think Pakatan Harapan is on the same page with BN as they too have pledged to form a Ministerial Committee on MA63 at the federal level.”

He said Warisan’s argument that Sabah could act unilaterally to implement MA63 was “clearly wrong” and went against the Federal Constitution.

“Article 4(3) empowers the Federal Court to strike down (invalidate) any law passed by the Sabah state assembly in excess of its powers under the Ninth Schedule. That such a law was passed by a two-thirds majority of the DUN would be irrelevant,” Fuad said.

He said this was why the National Steering Committee on the devolution of rights to Sabah and Sarawak was the correct move, in keeping with the requirement of a consensus.

“This is an extraordinary step forward for the people of Sabah and Sarawak who, for at least 22 years under a previous prime minister, had their special rights repressed and, in many cases, totally ignored,” he said, in an apparent reference to Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

Fuad also rejected suggestions that the United Kingdom still had a role in the implementation of MA63.

“The answer to this is a clear and simple no. Article VIII of MA63 does not require the UK’s involvement in realising MA63 and moreover, the Malaysia Act 1963 (United Kingdom) which was passed by the UK Parliament clearly and effectively severs all ties between the UK, Sabah and Sarawak for the purposes of forming Malaysia.

“In saying that Malaysia must subject itself to the UK is an insult to Malaysia’s sovereignty,” he said, adding that Warisan’s plan to bring Putrajaya for arbitration in London has no legal basis.

“I doubt that PH, which is Warisan’s partner, would agree to submitting this country’s sovereignty to the UK,” he said.

Fuad said it was for the country’s judiciary to resolve any dispute between Sabah and the federal government.

“International judicial bodies only decide matters between independent nation states. Sabah is not an independent nation state.

On Thursday, Foreign Minister Anifah Aman said opposition parties did not understand the meaning of the word “consensus”, after opposition parties SAPP and Warisan said BN was not serious about Sabah’s rights.

“Look at the manifesto ‘secara konsensus’ (through consensus)… It’s a trick to deny the implementation of MA63 because as long as Malaya does not agree, there is no consensus,” said SAPP president Yong Teck Lee.

Meanwhile, a statement by Warisan’s legal bureau said the issue on Sabah rights should not be part of a political manifesto.

“The people are not interested whether you do it by consensus or otherwise. The people are interested in its implementation, not about how many committees and how many meetings are held,” it said. - FMT