Parti Rakyat Sarawak president Tan Sri James Masing leaving the Prime Minister's Office in Putrajaya after a BN component party meeting, August 14, 2015. — Picture by Kamles Kumar

KUCHING, Dec 8 — The Sarawak assembly today approved a motion mandating the state government to discuss with the federal administration the conditions set out by the state during the formation of Malaysia in 1963.

The motion, which received bipartisan support from 61 state lawmakers today, wants the conditions and recommendations laid out in the Inter-Governmental Committee (IGC) report to be implemented in full to ensure the rights and special interests of Sarawak citizens are upheld and protected.

Land Development Minister Tan Sri Dr James Masing, in tabling the motion, said a realignment of federal policies on education, health and the state’s official language will be necessary in order to ensure they are consistent with constitutional safeguards and the terms in the IGC report.

“The motion also calls for a review of the grants and other revenues assigned to the state and the discharge of financial burdens by the federal government on the subject matters in the Concurrent List and additional sources of revenues, to be made available to the state government to carry out its constitutional duties and responsibilities to the people,” he said.

He said the motion also calls for a delegation of federal functions and powers to the state to ensure efficient and effective monitoring or supervision, and timely implementation, of federal works and infrastructural projects or projects designed to improve the welfare of Sarawak’s rural communities.

Masing, who is also Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS) president, said the motion also calls for a review of laws that affect the state’s right to its natural resources and upon such review, to amend or repeal such legislation.

“We also want a review of federal government’s decisions or policies that are found to be inconsistent with the aspirations of the people of the state as noted in the Cobbold Commission Report at the time of the formation of Malaysia,” he said.

When winding up debates on the motion, Masing said the state government also wants a review of the Territorial Sea Act 2012, the Continental Shelf Act 1966 and the Petroleum Mining Act 1966 (Revised 1972).

“We will discuss with the federal government on these three Acts at a proper forum later,” he said.

During the debate, Asajaya state assemblyman Datuk Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah said it may be an overstatement or wrong to say that Sarawakians are not happy to be in Malaysia but it is also similarly inaccurate to conclude that Sarawakians are happy as Malaysians.

“There is a lot of unhappiness among Sarawakians with the federal government in respect of the poor conditions of schools, clinics, hospitals and roads,” he said.

He said the introduction of the Continental Shelf Act, Territorial Sea Act and the Petroleum Mining Act have deprived the state of its rights over the natural resources found in its territorial waters.