KUCHING: The Special Steering Cabinet Committee to review the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63) held its meeting in Putrajaya yesterday to propose to the government on restoring rights and autonomy of Sabah and Sarawak.
The meeting which was held for the first time was chaired by Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad with the primary purpose to restore the status of Sabah and Sarawak as partners in Malaysia.
Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Law) Datuk Liew Vui Keong said Sabah Chief Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal and Sarawak Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg were among those who attended the historic event.
“The issues tabled included proposals to return all rights of autonomy to Sabah and Sarawak governments on matters pertaining to finance, petroleum, mining and gas exploration; legal; land and produce from land; federal and state public works; maritime and fisheries; human resources and state public services,” he said.
At the meeting yesterday, the federal cabinet ministers present were Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng, Economic Affairs Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali, Works Minister Baru Bian, Foreign Minister Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah, Transport Minister Anthony Loke, Communications and Multimedia Minister Gobind Singh Deo, International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Darell Leiking and Liew.
The Sabah delegation included Sabah Attorney General Datuk Zaleha Rose Pandin and former Sabah Attorney General Datuk Stephen Foo and for Sarawak, they included Assistant Minister for Law, State-Federal Relations and Project Monitoring Sharifah Hasidah Sayeed Aman Ghazali and Deputy Speaker Datuk Gerawat Gala.
Attorney General Tommy Thomas, Sabah Chief Justice Datuk David Wong and constitutional law expert Professor Datuk Dr Shad Saleem Faruqi were also present in the meeting.
“The committee will meet every two months once and was given six months from the date of the meeting to table the final report,” said Liew. – Bernama
