Sarawak CM Adenan meets Najib

Sarawak Chief Minister Tan Sri Adenan Satem met Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak today at the Prime Minister's Office here.

Adenan was seen being driven to the Perdana Putra building, where the Prime Minister's Office is, at 9.05am for the meeting scheduled for 9.30am.

The car carrying Adenan was seen leaving Perdana Putra at 10.45am. Adenan waved as the car passed by the reporters who had been waiting outside the building since 8.30am.

The Office of the Chief Minister, when contacted, said an official statement on the meeting would be issued soon.

A statement released by the Office of the Sarawak Chief Minister yesterday said Adenan would discuss with the Prime Minister the devolution of powers, the Inter-Governmental Committee (IGC) Report and recommendations, the Malaysia Agreement 1963, the Malaysia Act, and the Report of the Cobbold Commission.

The statement said Adenan would hand over to Najib two memorandums on the state government stand on these matters.

On Jan 21, Adenan listed 13 provisions of administrative empowerment to be delegated to the state government which he said had been agreed upon during his meeting with Najib in Putrajaya the day before.

Adenan said then that these provisions of administrative empowerment were agreed upon in the first stage of the devolution of powers negotiations between the Sarawak and federal governments, while the second would touch on the state's rights (encroachment by the federal on state powers), and the third would be on the state oil and gas royalty request.

Adenan had taken over as chief minister from Tun Abdul Taib Mahmud in February 2014, and led the Sarawak Barisan Nasional to a landslide victory in the state election on May 7, winning 72 of the 82 seats.

On June 26, Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Nancy Shukri the first high-level meeting on the devolution of powers, held on June 13, had agreed on the setting up of a technical committee.

The technical committee comprises representatives nominated by the Sarawak and Sabah state governments together with the federal government's representatives and historians from the two states.

The federal cabinet had appointed Nancy and Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Anifah Aman to conduct the second phase of negotiations on the devolution of powers under the Malaysia Agreement 1963 with the Attorney-General's Chambers.