Don’t claim power that’s not yours, Guan Eng told
Sabah activist Zainnal Ajamain. (Facebook pic)
KOTA KINABALU: Sabah rights activist Zainnal Ajamain has accused Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng of impertinence for saying that the formula for revenue sharing between Putrajaya and the East Malaysian states cannot be applied until the federal government can afford to do so.
Zainnal told FMT Lim was presuming he had the power to decide when to give Sabah and Sarawak their rights and displaying his ignorance of the Federal Constitution’s position on the issue.
He was referring to a statement Lim made in the Dewan Rakyat on Wednesday.
“Lim may be the finance minister, but this does not give him the authority to make an announcement on this important issue,” he said.
“Putrajaya has no choice but to pay Sabah and Sarawak what is due to them. This is provided for in the Federal Constitution. There are no two ways about it.”
Under the constitution, Putrajaya is obliged to pay Sabah 40% of the net revenue it collects from the state. For Sarawak, the amount is fixed as an annual income but is subject to review under Article 112D of the constitution.
However, Sabah too has been receiving a fixed amount – RM26 million a year – since 1964, although the annual revenue the federal government collects from the state has been increasing since. International Trade and Industry Minister Darell Leiking has said Putrajaya’s total debt to Sabah has come to about RM1 trillion.
Zainnal spoke of the 1990s as a time of plenty and noted that Dr Mahathir Mohamad was then serving as prime minister.
“He did not pay Sabah and Sarawak then because he was so busy constructing the Petronas Twin Towers, Sepang Circuit and KLIA and organising LIMA (Langkawi International Maritime & Aerospace Exhibition).
“Now Putrajaya is saying the government is in debt and therefore will pay only when it is able.”
He pointed out that the revenue-sharing terms are specified in Annex A of the Malaysia Agreement and that the annex is now part of the Federal Constitution.
He accused Putrajaya of mismanaging funds and penalising Sabah and Sarawak for its own negligence.
The federal government had spent extravagantly to benefit only Peninsular Malaysia, he said.
“Therefore, Putrajaya should excuse us if we don’t have any empathy for the problem it is facing,” he added. “Its debts have nothing to do with Sabah and Sarawak.”
He suggested what he said was a “simple” way to fulfil Putrajaya’s obligation to Sabah: let the Sabah finance ministry collect all taxes and other payments due to the federal government and surrender only 60% of the collection to Putrajaya.
“Sabah can retain 40% of the collection as provided for in Schedule 10, Part IV, Item 2 of the Federal Constitution,” he said. “In this way, Sabahans are assured that whatever is collected from them is given back directly to them.
“For more than five decades, we’ve allowed Kuala Lumpur, and then Putrajaya, to collect for us. And always Kuala Lumpur or Putrajaya will come up with some excuse or other to deny Sabah and Sarawak what is due to them.
“This is a very unequal partnership. Putrajaya is taking advantage of the Sabah and Sarawak governments’ passivity.”
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