Ewon resigned as the entrepreneur development and cooperatives minister last week after citing the Attorney-General’s Chambers’ position on a recent High Court ruling that the federal government acted unlawfully by failing to honour Sabah’s 40% share of the state’s net federal revenue for nearly five decades.
“Moving forward, Armizan will take over from Ewon,” government spokesman Fahmi Fadzil told reporters at a post-Cabinet meeting press conference today.
In August, deputy prime minister Fadillah Yusof said 13 of the 29 demands by Sabah and Sarawak under MA63 had been resolved, with the remaining 16 still being reviewed by the technical committee, which he chairs.
Fadillah said the demands under review involved issues related to education, healthcare, oil royalties, petroleum cash payments, oil minerals and fields, the Territorial Sea Act 2012 (Act 750), as well as state rights over the continental shelf.
Armizan, who was at the press conference with Fahmi, said the Cabinet has instructed that discussions on fulfilling Sabah’s 40% share of federal revenue derived from the state be convened immediately.
He said discussions with the Sabah government would start at the civil service level as the current state government is under a caretaker administration ahead of the Nov 29 state election.
Armizan said finance ministry secretary-general Johan Mahmood Merican has been tasked with representing the federal government in the discussions while Sabah state secretary Safar Untong will represent the state.
The first meeting is expected to take place at Menara Kinabalu in Kota Kinabalu on Monday.
“This development demonstrates the federal government’s seriousness in implementing the Kota Kinabalu High Court’s order,” Armizan said.
The Kota Kinabalu High Court last month ruled that the federal government acted unlawfully by failing to honour Sabah’s 40% share of federal revenue derived from the state for nearly five decades.
It directed Putrajaya to conduct a review with Sabah to determine the state’s 40% entitlement for each financial year from 1974 to 2021.
The court also ordered that the review must commence within 90 days and be completed within 180 days.
The Attorney-General’s Chambers announced on Tuesday that it would not appeal the court’s decision.
Earlier today, the AGC said it had filed a notice of appeal at the Kota Kinabalu High Court against part of the court’s grounds of judgment.
It said the partial appeal, filed yesterday, was only against several “mistakes” in the grounds of judgement, including the allegation that the federal and state governments had abused their power and violated their constitutional obligations.