By WU VUIDE
KOTA KINABALU: Star Sabah President Datuk Seri Dr Jeffrey Kitingan has urged that a proper legal and constitutional study be undertaken to expose the full extent of federal laws that have eroded Sabah’s autonomy.
“His Excellency’s stand on the Petroleum Development Act 1974 and the Environmental Quality Act 1974 echoes concerns that we in Sabah have long shared under the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63),” said Jeffrey, welcoming the remarks by Sarawak Governor Tun Dr Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar on the continued encroachment of federal powers into state jurisdictions.
For Sabah, however, he said the issue is not limited to oil and the environment. Other federal laws have also stripped the state of powers and revenues that are rightfully ours.
These include the Territorial Sea Act 2012, which arbitrarily reduced Sabah’s maritime boundary to three nautical miles, costing the state control of offshore resources, and the Fisheries Act 1985, which centralised marine licensing under Putrajaya and weakened Sabah’s authority over its own coastal livelihoods, he said.
“Although some licensing powers have been ‘devolved’ in recent years, this is meaningless in practice. Devolution leaves Sabah tied to federal law and dependent on federal goodwill.
“What Sabah needs is not piecemeal devolution but full restoration of our power to legislate, regulate and collect revenue from our seas,” said Jeffrey.
He further pointed out that the Electricity Supply Act 1990 removed Sabah’s sovereignty over its own power supply, leaving it dependent on federal agencies and outside decisions.
These incursions, he said, have left Sabah poorer, weaker and more dependent, in direct contradiction to the promises made under MA63.
He called for an immediate joint Sabah–Sarawak review of all federal laws that violate the constitutional division of powers and for the restoration of full revenue entitlement, including the 40 per cent net revenue due to Sabah.
He also urged for binding parliamentary safeguards to prevent any further federal encroachment.
“I honour His Excellency’s statesmanship, but I will not merely echo. As a son of Sabah, I insist that our rights are enforced, our sovereignty respected and our future secured.
“Our rights are not a favour from Putrajaya. They are obligations already signed, already promised and long overdue,” he said.
