Sabah assembly rejects Shafie's motion to debate Sulu seizure of Petronas assets

The Sabah legislative assembly today rejected a motion to debate the seizure of Petronas assets overseas by purported heirs of the Sulu sultanate, submitted by opposition leader Mohd Shafie Apdal.

Speaker Kadzim M Yahya said the motion was rejected based on Rule 23 (2), which requires motions to be submitted within 24 hours of the start of the session.

“As this motion was submitted at 11.25am (the previous day), which does not meet the 24-hour requirement, it is rejected according to Rule 23(2),” he said.

Shafie, who is Senallang assemblyperson and also Semporna MP, then requested for the motion to be debated on any of the four-day assembly sitting, as it involved the issue of Sabah’s sovereignty.

“It does not have to be debated today, maybe it can be done on Thursday. This issue has been haunting us for 65 years. I am not recognising the Sulu sultanate, but we have laws and I will also be bringing this to Parliament next week,” he said.

Kadzim, however, advised Shafie to raise the matter in Parliament instead, saying that the issue should be handled at the Federal level as it involves the federal government.

In Parliament today, however, Dewan Rakyat speaker Azhar Azizan Harun rejected motions to debate the matter on grounds of sub judice.

- Bernama