PUTRAJAYA, July 18 — The federal government has agreed to return 55 plots of land to Sarawak and Sabah as part of the Anwar administration’s pledge to realise key negotiation points of the Malaysia Agreement 1963, which in recent years had become a flashpoint between the Borneo states and the peninsula.

Sarawak had wanted a total of 219 plots of land now under federal control to be returned while Sabah said five parcels should be given back under a renewed push for the agreement to be reviewed.

Putrajaya has approved the return of 52 plots of land to Sarawak and three to neighbouring Sabah, Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof announced here today.

In a press conference held after he chaired the MA63 technical committee meeting this evening, Fadillah hailed the agreement as a significant milestone in the ongoing negotiations to realise the concession signed 60 years ago, but which recently fuelled tension between the Bornean states and people from the peninsula.

"This was one of the things agreed on after today’s meeting,” he said.

"We’ve had many achievements since the unity government and the commitment of this government is to expedite anything that has to do with the empowerment of Sabah and Sarawak with regards to its power and rights under the MA63 and Inter-Governmental Committee Report so they could be returned to us.”

Much of the land to be returned had been ceded to the federal government for various projects that were never executed, the deputy prime minister said.

Getting the land back would mean Sarawak and Sabah would have to pay compensation. Fadillah said members of the technical committee said all parties agreed that the compensation sum would match what was paid by the federal government, and a special committee has been formed to iron out the legal and financial details.

A final report would be tabled before the MA63 Action Committee chaired by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, Fadillah said.

Fadillah is the first deputy prime minister to hail from Sarawak and his appointment was seen as the first significant move by Anwar’s government to elevate the status of Sabah and Sarawak as regions on equal standing with the peninsula.

The move was also seen as a way to appease the ruling parties of Sarawak and Sabah as Anwar scrambled to cobble together a coalition government after the 15th general election saw a hung parliament.

Anwar suggested he was ready to make concessions favourable to these parties, and that he would make revisiting the MA63 a top priority if he became prime minister.