Armizan Mohd Ali in a Facebook video speaking on Warisan’s claim to have settled 17 matters relating to the Malaysia Agreement 1964.
KOTA KINABALU: There is no record to show that the Warisan party succeeded in resolving 17 claims over the Malaysia Agreement 1963 when the party was in power in Sabah from 2018 to 2020, says a leader of Gabungan Rakyat Sabah.
Armizan Mohd Ali, head of the GRS direct members wing, said he has heard Warisan make its claim since 2023, and it had resurfaced as a campaign tool for the Sabah state assembly elections.
Armizan, a federal minister who previously headed the MA63 Secretariat at the Prime Minister’s Department, said that the secretariat’s documents did not show any evidence that the 17 matters had been fully resolved.
“I raised this question with Warisan in 2023, and eventually, the response was that they were not yet resolved, but had been agreed upon. Now, leading up to the state election, they are again capitalising on the so-called ‘success of 17’,” he said in a statement tonight.
“I stress that the MA63 issue is important for Sabah and should not be exploited as a political tool in the elections,” he said.
He said phrases such as “agreement in principle” or “policy approval” did not mean that a matter had been fully approved as demanded; more importantly, not everything that was agreed in principle would be implemented.
Armizan, who led the MA63 Secretariat from December 2022 to December 2023, said he was himself unsure what the 17 matters were; he left it to the party to explain them.
During his one-year tenure at the secretariat, five matters were discussed, agreed upon, and implemented through various official instruments, he said.
Polling takes place on Nov 29. A total of 596 candidates are contesting the 73 state assembly seats.
