Sarawak deputy education, innovation and talent development minister Dr Annuar Rapaee said Anwar Ibrahim had stated during the Malaysia Day celebrations that implementing the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63) pledges were the prime minister’s responsibility.

Annuar also pointed out that the prime minister said this was a matter “not to be negotiated, but to be implemented”.

“What has been said by the prime minister is true. Our ministry has achieved some progress in our pursuit of the devolution of powers.

“And our counterpart in the federal government, especially the education minister (Fadhlina Sidek), has shown a lot of interest and kindness to us to discuss the devolution of powers.

“Having said that, there are many hurdles, in particular the bureaucracy. We hope this can be ironed out as soon as possible,” he told the Sarawak state assembly during a question-and-answer session today.

Annuar pointed out that multiple assemblymen had told the state assembly about delays in channelling state funds to schools for repairs of various infrastructure.

“Even the repair of a door, or a locker, such small things, has to be approved by Putrajaya. So we want the state education director to approve all these state-funded projects so there is no delay in repairing our dilapidated schools.

“And they (Putrajaya) have agreed, but so far, we’ve not received any black-and-white on the devolution of powers to allow the state director to approve all these small projects funded by the state government.”

Earlier this month, deputy prime minister Fadillah Yusof said a report on Sarawak’s education autonomy could be expected in a month by a working group under the MA63 technical committee.

Fadillah, a senior vice-president of ruling coalition Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS), added that “discussions and negotiations are ongoing”.

The technical committee was formed last year by Anwar to look into areas under MA63 that were still under negotiation and those that had already been implemented.