Kuala Lumpur: Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Seri Jeffrey Kitingan appealed for Sabah’s rights under MA63 to be returned and highlighted many development shortcomings in the Dewan Rakyat.
In his debate on the King’s opening speech, he said, there were many issues plaguing Sabah and that one of the most urgent and vital ones was the Federal Government’s refusal to fulfil the Malaysia Agreement 1963.
He said this is akin to the peninsula colonising Sabah and Sarawak in a way, as this refusal to implement the MA63 has led to problems such as illegal immigrants getting citizenship through the controversial Project IC.
“It also saw the entry of peninsula-based political parties spreading their wings to the state, leading to proxy colonialism,” said Jeffrey.
SPONSORED CONTENT Sabah blackouts a thing of the past with electricity power handover Kota Kinabalu: Blackouts or power outages, a regular feature in the Land below the Wind, could be a thing of the past with the federal government’s phased handover of regulatory power on Sabah’s electricity supply to the state government. Read more “When these peninsula-based parties take over our state and parliamentary seats, it automatically makes us lose our autonomy,” the Keningau MP said.
He said Sabah slowly lost its power, got left behind in many development initiatives and calls for the MA63 to be returned were suppressed with activists (including himself) being arrested under the Internal Security Act (ISA) and many more.
Jeffrey said bringing this up was to highlight and remind the government what is owed to Sabah, and what must be done to rectify the wrong and injustice.
“Now, Sabah is one of the poorest states in the country, among the most illiterate, developments being peninsula-centric and suffers unfair development allocations, to name a few,” he said.
Hence, he said the Federal Government should stop stalling and start paying what is owed to Sabah under MA63.
“We should get our 40pc, Sabah and Sarawak should have 35pc seat sharing in parliament,” Jeffrey said.
“Let the Sabah and Sarawak governments decide on their own future growth and destiny with their own policies including tax incentives and at the same time generate income that benefits the federal government,” he said.
He said if Sabah and Sarawak are prosperous, the whole country would be too.
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