KUCHING, July 3 — Sarawak and Sabah have the right to research any information into the signing of the Malaysia Agreement 1963 as part of their bid to reclaim their rights, Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said today.
He added that the federal government is adopting an open mind and is prepared to accept feedback on talks regarding the rights of the two Borneo states as enshrined in the Malaysia Agreement.
“No issues that cannot be resolved,” he told reporters here in response to the Sarawak government’s move to deploy a legal team to London to retrieve documents leading to the signing of the 1963 accord.
The agreement led to the formation of Malaysia comprising Sarawak, Sabah, the Malayan peninsula and Singapore on September 16, 1963, though Singapore was expelled from the federation just two years later.
Last Saturday, Sarawak Chief Minister Datuk Amar Abang Johari Openg said the state would send a team of lawyers to London for a week in the middle of this month.
The legal team will be led by Sarawak Law, State-Federal Relationship and Project Monitoring Assistant Minister Sharifah Hasidah Sayeed Aman Ghazali and will include state legal counsel Datuk Fong Joo Chung, Deputy Speaker of the State Assembly Datuk Gerawat Gala and lawyers from the State Attorney-General's Chambers.
