KUCHING, July 9 — Sarawak assistant minister Sharifah Hasidah Sayeed Aman Ghazali denied today that a legal team’s trip to London over the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63) is a waste of public fund.

Sharifah Hasidah, who handles the law, state-federal relationship and project monitoring portfolio, said it is merely a fact-finding mission.

"We are not going there to waste public funds, but to find some facts, do our research and we want to be factual, nothing less, nothing more,” she told reporters at the Hari Raya open house of Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Nancy Shukri, at the old state assembly building here.

She said the legal team needs to verify "bits and pieces of facts and feedback” which it has gathered from "here and there”, and from the Internet.

"We are also going there to confirm facts that we already have in our possession.

"We want to go there to get the real documents, thousands of them,” she added.

She dismissed as false a claim by Parti Amanah Negara deputy president Salahuddin Ayub that sending the team to London was "senseless and a waste of public funds”.

"This is for Sarawak and the people, so there is no issue on the waste of public fund,” she said.

Sharifah Hasidah, who will lead the team, said other members of the team have the expertise and experience, including former state attorney-general Datuk Fong Joo Chung and Sarawak Assembly Deputy Speaker Datuk Gerawat Gala.

She said the team will leave for London on July 16 where it will conduct research and study references in various places, including the British Library and National Archives in Kew, London.

She also welcomed a gesture by rights activist Lina Soo to hand over thousands of her collections of documents, agreements, letters and treaties relating to the formation of Malaysia.

"Yes, I welcome anyone who wishes to hand over their documents to us,” she said.