KOTA KINABALU: State Law and Native Affairs Minister Datuk Aidi Moktar, who has come under fire for allegedly proposing that Bugis and Javanese people be made natives of Sabah, says the decision on the matter is up to the state government.

"I never said the government will recognise the two ethnic groups. Such things will be left to the state government to discuss," Aidi said after controversy arose following his remarks in Tawau on Friday (Feb 1) that the state government would study the possibility of including the Bugis and Javanese as natives of Sabah.