KOTA KINABALU: The Federal Government’s application for a stay of execution on a court order mandating the review and payment of Sabah’s 40% net revenue entitlement will not affect Sabah’s rights, says Datuk Mustapha Sakmud (pic).
The Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Sabah and Sarawak affairs) said this notice was filed by the Attorney General’s Chambers (AGC) because the appeal on certain matters have yet to be heard.
He said while waiting for the appeal, it was necessary for the stay of execution to be filed first because there is no decision yet on the payment amount, methods and so on.
“It will not affect our claim on the 40% entitlement,” he said, assuring that the appeal was also not on the 40% itself, but rather some aspects of the court order.
Mustapha said the application for a stay of execution is expected to be heard on March 31.
“The 180-day period is going to be up soon on April 15, and because the Court of Appeal has yet to decide on a date, parties involved including the state and federal governments would be at risk of contempt of court for not being able to fulfil the order,” he said.
“So the AGC feels that it would be best to file a notice of stay while we wait for the Court of Appeal to set a date for the hearing,” he explained.
Mustapha added that despite having gone through several processes of negotiations following the Oct 17 court order last year, there were still many aspects that still cannot be decided on.
He said while the federal government had shared a data of revenue collected from Sabah between 2007 and 2025, the data for the previous years or lost years, have yet to be compiled.
Data from those lost years were recorded manually and had to be recounted, recompiled, and rechecked thoroughly, he said, hence causing some delay.
Mustapha said the negotiations to come to an agreement on payments and other crucial matters relating to this matter were ongoing.
He took note of the Sabah Law Society and Sabah government’s stand objecting to the appeal for a stay of execution, and said that all views in any legal circumstance should be respected as it is part of check and balance.
“However, I believe we all have one common goal, which is to ensure that our rights under the Federal Constitution are respected and preserved, and to be executed fairly,” Mustapha added.
