Sabah Pakatan voices support for lawyers’ bid for state’s revenue rights

KOTA KINABALU, May 25 — Sabah Pakatan Harapan (PH) has today echoed support for the Sabah Law Society’s (SLS) court action against the federal government to pursue its right to be paid 40 per cent of its revenue.

A part of both the federal and Sabah governments, Sabah PH’s leadership council said that it understood and respected the decision by SLS — and was therefore hoping for a favourable outcome.

“Sabah PH now being part of the federal and state government determined to ensure that the matter is resolved through the Implementation Action Council and the Technical Committee (MA63 Committees) headed by the Prime Minister and the second Deputy Prime Minister respectively,” they said in a statement following a meeting here.

The pact said it lauded the federal government’s commitment to resolve the issues by establishing the committees with representatives from the Sabah and Sarawak governments appointed to these committees.

“Our approach may differ but our goal remains the same and that is to ensure that the constitutional rights of Sabah in the MA63 are fully respected and implemented,” it said.

In 2022, Sabah PH had also initiated a court action against the Federal and the Sabah government by way of Originating Summons claiming for Sabah’s 40 per cent constitutional right to be respected and implemented.

They withdrew the case in September of 2023, citing positive progress, but also reserved the right to refile the case.

However, with the case hitting headlines again recently, United Sabah National Organisation (Usno) president Tan Sri Pandikar Amin Mulia has questioned the silence of Pakatan leaders in the state Cabinet, asking why they were not backing Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor.

He said that the PKR and DAP state ministers would be “kowtow-ing” to their Peninsula leadership if they remained silent over the matter.

Yesterday, state Attorney General Datuk Nor Asiah Mohd Yusof said that the state government was withdrawing its submission to the Court of Appeal in questioning the SLS on its locus standi in the case.

This was after a public backlash over the Sabah government’s stand on the case during the Federal Attorney General’s appeal against the High Court decision to grant SLS leave to challenge the federal government’s decision to gazette special interim grant provisions while negotiations for the 40 per cent continue.