Deputy Chief Minister Jeffrey Kitingan said the agreement with Sarawak showed Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin’s continued commitment to giving Sabah and Sarawak their rights as stipulated under the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63).

The agreement allows the Sarawak government, through its subsidiary Petroleum Sarawak Bhd (Petros), to play a bigger role in the oil and gas industry through cooperation with Petronas.

While congratulating the Sarawak government, Jeffrey, who is also the STAR president, said the Sabah government will do what it takes to strike a deal of its own.

“Kudos also to the Sarawak government for reclaiming their rights. It is no secret that Sarawak has been doing all the heavy lifting in this fight and we are grateful for its efforts,” he said in a statement today.

“Sabah will pursue the matter and make the necessary arrangement to ensure we will also sign a similar deal with Petronas. The two Bornean states have the same rights.”

He said such a deal would help boost Sabah’s economic development and speed up its rural industrialisation which is desperately lacking compared to the peninsula.

Jeffrey also vowed that the Gabungan Rakyat Sabah-led state government will not assume the wait-and-see attitude of the previous Warisan-led government in reclaiming the states’ rights under MA63.

“We will work closely with the Sarawak government to ensure all the rights under MA63 are fulfilled and correct all the breaches over the decades,” he said.