By WU VUIDE
KOTA KINABALU: The United Progressive Kinabalu Organisation (Upko) has urged the Federal Government to withdraw its appeal filed at the Court of Appeal concerning the grounds of judgment issued by the Kota Kinabalu High Court on 17 October 2025 in relation to the judicial review on Sabah’s 40 per cent rights.
Its president, Datuk Ewon Benedick, said the call is consistent with the party’s principled struggle to resolve the 40 per cent entitlement based on genuine respect and sincere implementation of Sabah’s rights.
“This is the essence of Malaysia that Upko must continue to uphold. This is our ‘soul searching’ — a political quest that requires us to look back courageously and ask whether the Federation that was formed has delivered justice in accordance with the agreement signed in 1963.
“We need the reinstatement of the 40 per cent entitlement to address development needs, poverty eradication, economic, industrial and entrepreneurial programmes, people’s well-being, scholarships, human capital development and many other forms of development for the people of Sabah,” he said.
Ewon said this when officiating at the opening of Upko’s 17th Triennial Delegates Conference at the Sabah International Convention Centre (SICC).
Ewon, who is also Deputy Chief Minister III and Industrial Development, Entrepreneurship and Transport Minister said the second meeting of the senior officers’ committee following the High Court decision, which was scheduled for December, had been postponed.
“The position that should have been brought by the Sabah senior officers’ delegation was for the Federal Government to drop the appeal filed at the Court of Appeal. However, the meeting was postponed.
“I cannot answer on behalf of the Federal Government as to why the meeting was postponed. That question should be directed to them,” he said.
The Penampang Member of Parliament said he would take part in the parliamentary debate and reiterate Upko’s position urging the Federal Government to withdraw the appeal.
“We do not deny that Sabah’s level of development today is better than before 1963.
“We appreciate the resolution of 13 matters related to the rights of Sabah and Sarawak under the Malaysia Agreement 1963 thus far. We also value the good relationship between the Federal and State Governments that has made the resolution of these 13 matters possible.
“However, revenue sharing through the return of 40 per cent of Federal revenue collected in Sabah to the State Government, which ceased in 1974, remains the main demand of the people of Sabah that has yet to be resolved,” he said.
Ewon added that Upko together with the people of Sabah — whether through government channels, political action, legal avenues, academic discourse, activism or social media — will continue to demand the resolution of the 40 per cent entitlement.
“Our presence in the Federal Government from December 2022 until my decision to resign from the Federal Cabinet has recorded the party’s positions that I have consistently fought for,” he said.
Ewon with the party’s top leaders at the opening of Upko’s 17th Triennial Delegates Conference at the Sabah International Convention Centre yesterday.
