KUCHING, Aug 23 —Datuk Amar Abang Johari Openg said today the state Barisan Nasional (BN) will need to discuss indepth the legal team’s London findings on the Malaysia Agreement before any meeting with Putrajaya for future talks on Sarawak rights.
The Sarawak chief minister added that other state BN leaders have yet to know the full extent of the findings and will need to discuss the state government’s next direction after studying the documents related to the hornbill state before the formation of Malaysia in 1963.
“We have not discussed the documents yet,” he told reporters after opening the Business Excellence Seminar and Forum 2017 here.
Abang Johari said the documents contained delicate issues which needed to be studied thoroughly.
“Once we in the state Barisan have reached a decision on the next action to do, I will meet with the prime minister,” he said.
He said it is not necessary at this stage to meet with Najib on the outcome of the London trip led by Law, State-Federal Relationship and Project Monitoring Assistant Minister Sharifah Hasidah Sayeed Aman Ghazali, last month.
He said he does not foresee any problem to crop up in his meeting with the prime minister on reclaiming state’s rights from Putrajaya.
“If we all have the facts, which are supported by documents, the prime minister had told us that he would give back what belong to us,” he said, adding that Najib had assured the state leaders that they could come to meet with him over state’s rights.
According to the chief minister, the legal team, among others, brought home the recently declassified minutes of the British Cabinet meetings, minutes of meetings of the Sarawak colonial government and other documents which were kept in the British national archives.
He said the minutes of meeting of the Sarawak colonial government and other important documents were taken by colonial officials to the UK capital before Sarawak achieved independence.
“There was none left with Sarawak, so we took them back,” he said.
Other members of the legal team to London were former State Attorney-General Datuk Fong Joo Chung and State Deputy Speaker Datuk Garawat Gala.
