Saturday June 21, 2008

Autonomy, oil royalty, Labuan

KOTA KINABALU: The Sabah Progressive Party will convene a delegates conference on July 7 to discuss various issues affecting the state, party president Datuk Yong Teck Lee said.

He said the party’s supreme council at its meeting yesterday endorsed an eight-point declaration which would be discussed during the conference.

The document, entitled Declaration of the people of Sabah for change in the country read:

Whereas our mission is to establish a trustworthy government and a progressive, just and harmonious society,

Whereas the people of Sabah express our solidarity and friendship with other Malaysians,

It is now hereby declared:

1. That the government shall be of the people and based on good governance and civil society and non-racial politics based on a progressive and harmonious society,

2. That Sabah shall have political autonomy whereby the government shall be formed and run by the people of Sabah,

3. That Sabah and other oil-producing states shall be entitled to the petroleum royalty of 20%,

4. That the federal territory of Labuan shall be returned to Sabah and governed as a special region,

5. That unfair and imprudent federal laws which have been extended to Sabah and federal departments and which are detriment to the state shall be reviewed,

6. That Sabah shall be given fair and just participation in the federal administration, the civil service and private sector, and that the federal departments in Sabah shall, as far as possible, be headed by local Malaysians,

7. That the federal government and the state governments shall put in sufficient resources, political will and leadership in solving the illegal immigrant problem in a firm but humane manner, with emphasis on regional concept and smart partnership,

8. That the federal and state governments shall together work on redressing the in-built structural imbalances in the economic and social structure of the country affecting Sabah and the other states.