Pelawan rep reminded MA63 talks began before PH took over Putrajaya

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Datuk Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah

SIBU: DAP Sarawak deputy chairman David Wong appears to have ‘short memory’ when insinuating that the Pakatan Harapan (PH) federal government ought to be credited for initiating discussion on the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63) through the setting-up of the Special Cabinet Committee.

Minister of Tourism, Arts, Culture, Youth and Sports Datuk Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah said the Pelawan assemblyman seems unaware that discussions on the devolution of power between Putrajaya and the state governments of Sabah and Sarawak were ongoing even before the last general election.

“It (discussion) did not come about only after PH came to power. He (Wong) should recall that the late Pehin Sri Adenan (Satem) raised these issues on state rights that diminished through the years since 1963 including our rights on oil and gas, and he had asked for a return of these rights,” he said yesterday.

The Asajaya assemblyman stressed that what is important now is for all Sarawakians – whether from PH or Gabungan Parti Sarawak – to ensure that these diminished rights are returned to Sarawak, and not on who should be getting credit for pursuing the matter.

Wong recently said that the Special Cabinet Committee on MA63 was only made possible after PH took over the federal government, following the committee’s meeting in Kuala Lumpur on Dec 17 last year.

He further said that such a meeting never happened during the time of former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak.