KUCHING, April 14: The Sarawak Attorney General’s (SAG) Chambers has yesterday (April 13) filed an application to strike out a lawsuit in the Kuching High Court brought by 11 Sarawakians to determine the validity of the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63) declaration which they insisted was void from the beginning.
According to Parti Bumi Kenyalang (PBK) president Voon Lee Shan who is acting as the legal counsel of the 11 plaintiffs, the Sarawak government under Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) through the SAG Chambers had also served the necessary legal documents on the plaintiffs yesterday.
“With that, the plaintiffs have 14 days to oppose the application before the honourable Court.
“We all know for the past many years, there had been a lot of anxiety concerning the integration of Sabah and Sarawak into the Federation of Malaysia.
“In order to have the matter settled, the best avenue is the Court. We foresee that this case will reach the Federal Court which is the highest court in Malaysia,” he explained in a statement today.
After Malaysia was formed, Voon said Sarawak lost many of its resources including oil and gas and maritime wealth following the amendments to the Petroleum Development Act (PDA) 1974 and a few other laws (the Continental Shelf Act 1966 and the Territorial Seas Act 2012), as well as annual development fund revenue from the Federal government.
In addition, Voon claimed that the GPS government has not been able to pursue a better deal to reclaim Sarawak’s lost wealth to the satisfaction of the people until now.
According to a news report from a national media portal, 11 Sarawakians led by Dorus Katan Juman had filed a suit in the Kuching High Court last year to remove the territory from the Federation of Malaysia, but only served the amended writ and statement of claim to the defendants namely Putrajaya as well as the British and Sarawak governments recently.
During an online case management on March 15 before judicial commissioner Alexander Siew, Putrajaya and the Sarawak government had requested a month to file a striking out application and, at the same time, requested that the filing of defence be deferred pending the hearing of the striking out application.
Both governments have been given until April 15 to file the application to annul the suit. Another case management will be held on June 30.
The British government has not entered an appearance despite the writ being served on the embassy. — DayakDaily
