Focus on restoring and safeguarding substantive rights of Sabah – LDP

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KOTA KINABALU: Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) organizing secretary Peter Chong Su Leong yesterday concurred with the Minister of Special Tasks Datuk Seri Panglima Teo Chee Kang’s statement that the focus should be on restoring and safeguarding the substantive rights of Sabah instead of arguing over semantics pertaining to the status of Sabah and Sarawak in the federation.

Chong, who is also the chairman of LDP Petagas Division, said the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63) was a historical document signed between Malaya, Sabah, Sarawak and Singapore in the formation of Malaysia.

Recently, Chong said there had been opinions that the status of Sabah was same as the other states in the peninsular.

“This is only the view of an individual who has no historical facts to support his argument.”

He said the rights of Sabah was enshrined in MA63 and the Federal Constitution.

“However, some of the Sabah rights have undeniably been eroded over the past few decades.

“It is our duty now to restore the rights due to Sabah.”

He said the priority now should be on taking concrete steps to restore Sabah rights through negotiations instead of wasting time and resources in arguing whether Sabah was an autonomous state or one of the 13 states in Malaysia.

Chong said Teo, who is also the president of LDP, had been working hard in restoring Sabah rights with the Federal Government since the latter was appointed as the Minister of Special Tasks.

The Special Rights Committee chaired by Teo has also produced positive outcomes in this matter, he said.

Chong said LDP was looking beyond the historical documents in pursuing for policies and measures that would benefit Sabah and its people.

For instance, he said the newly-appointed Senator Datuk Yong Wui Chung, who is the secretary general of the party, had called on the government to include Sabahans in the Digital Free Trade Zone (DFTZ) initiative.

He said e-commerce was a trend that would continue to grow in the future.

As such, Chong said the Federal Government must not neglect Sabah and Sarawak in e-commerce initiatives so that East Malaysians have the opportunity to earn better income.