PKR to respect the 18/20 Point of Agreement?

PKR move to renew federal-state ties

KOTA KINABALU – Fears and concerns expressed by leaders in Sabah and Sarawak during the months prior to the formation of Malaysia in 1963 have become a reality, PKR vice president Dr Jeffrey Kitingan said here today.

“We have never had a compliance mechanism to ensure that the conditions for the formation of Malaysia are implemented,” he added.

He said that was why he had taken the initiative to set up a Sabah Sarawak Consultative Council (SSCC) to service the party’s Federal-State National Integration Council (FSNIC).

“Under its national integration council, the party has accepted a common policy platform to review the Malaysia Agreement,” he disclosed to the Malaysian Mirror in an interview.

“We need to move together. The federal and state stand must be similar,” he added.

The SSCC held its inaugural meeting here last Sunday (Feb. 21) under his chairmanship during the two-day working visit to Sabah by PKR president Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail.

Jeffrey said the PKR president came to formalize the SSCC that had a preliminary meeting in Kuching previously and the one last Sunday kicked off action by leaders from Sabah and Sarawak.

According to him, the agenda for the SSCC is to promote political and economic cohesion in the Borneo states.

“It is an informal body that will service and provide policy inputs into the formal structure of the FSNIC of PKR and to make this council at the national level meaningful and useful,” he explained.