Federal leaders have poor understanding of MA63, says Pandikar

 

Pandikar Amin Mulia said some federal leaders don’t know about or even understand what is the Inter-Governmental Committee or the Cobbold Commission. (Bernama pic)

PETALING JAYA: Federal government leaders’ poor understanding of the Malaysia Agreement 1963 is one of the contributing factors to the delay in fulfilling Sabah’s demand to fulfil the state’s rights, says United Sabah National Organisation president Pandikar Amin Mulia.

He called upon federal leaders to understand and read up about the agreement and related documents such as the Inter-Governmental Committee (IGC) report, the Cobbold Commission report, and the 20-Point Agreement.

“With due respect to some of them, they don’t even know about … don’t even understand what is the IGC, the Cobbold Commission,” the Borneo Post quoted him as saying after attending a Gabungan Rakyat Sabah event in Kota Kinabalu.

“They don’t know the process of the formation of Malaysia. That is the reason why they are slow in understanding what our requests are. When we bring up the matter of Sabah’s requests, some of them look confused, as if thinking ‘What is this? We don’t understand’,” said Pandikar.

“So they must understand (the issue) and once they do, they will respect our opinions, our requests. This is like a court case, the judges must know the law although it is the lawyers’ responsibility to explain during the court case. But if the judges sitting there do not know anything, how can they make a decision?” he said.

The former Dewan Rakyat speaker also called upon the federal leaders to read up and appreciate the processes that led to the formation of Malaysia and added that political leaders in the peninsula have the responsibility to understand what were the commitments of past leaders of Malaya and why Sabah, Sarawak and Singapore joined in forming Malaysia.

Pandikar disclosed that during his 10-year tenure as Dewan Rakyat speaker, MPs from Sabah and Sarawak had always raised this issue during parliamentary sittings.

“What is so difficult in interpreting Article 112D, to understand Schedule 10, to understand the 20 Points? During our fact-finding trip on MA63 to London, I came across a file that stated at that time, Sabah was adamant about not compromising on the issue of taxes and stressed that the right belongs to the state,” he added.

Usno backs GRS move to contest all state seats

Pandikar backed a call by GRS deputy chairman Jeffrey Kitingan for the party to contest all 73 constituencies in the state assembly elections next year.

He said GRS, as a local party, must contest all seats to live up to its motto “Rumah Kita, Kita Jaga”. - FMT