No plans to declassify special report on MA63, says Ongkili

KUALA LUMPUR: There is no need to declassify the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63) Special Cabinet Committee Report and remove it from the Official Secrets Act (OSA), said Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Maximus Ongkili (pic).

The MA63 special Cabinet committee was formed by then Pakatan Harapan government in 2018 and dissolved in January last year.

Ongkili - who is in charge of Sabah and Sarawak affairs - explained that the outcome of MA63 special cabinet committee report cannot be made public, as there are several ongoing policy matters that needed to be ironed out.

"Therefore, the Federal Government should be given space to continue talks with the Sabah and Sarawak state governments regarding the relevant implementations," he said.

"Any progress achieved will be announced by the government from time to time," added Ongkili in a Parliamentary written reply dated Tuesday (Nov 16).

Ongkili said ongoing talks on oil royalties and petroleum cash payments, mineral oil and oil fields, the Territorial Maritime Act 2012, and state rights on the continental shelf, have been suspended at the moment.

The suspension came about as there are ongoing talks on commercial settlements between the federal government, Sabah and Sarawak state governments and Petronas, added Maximus.

Ongkili was responding to Datuk Darell Leiking in a written reply after the Parti Warisan Sabah MP asked if the government plans to declassify findings of the MA63 special Cabinet committee report.

Opposition MPs have called for the report to be declassified if they are sincere in honouring its promise to Sabah and Sarawak.