Warisan believes Tun M's promise to restore Sabah's rights

The Sabah government led by the Parti Warisan Sabah (Warisan) is confident of Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad's promise to restore the state's rights including the demands of the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63).

Warisan president Datuk Shafie Apdal said this was evident when 17 of the more than 20 MA63 claims had been agreed to by Dr Mahathir when he became the seventh Prime Minister under the Pakatan Harapan (PH) government administration.

"I shouldn’t be allowed to protest just because of one incident in Sabah. In the case of MA63's claims, from the more than 20 that we have asked for .... 17 have already been agreed by Tun. We can’t expect to get all that we have asked for.

"But at least we can see some positive developments," the Sabah Chief Minister said after being asked to comment on whether he trusted Dr Mahathir after his announcement of Shafie as the ninth prime ministerial candidate for Pakatan Harapan Plus last week.

Earlier, he had visited Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan (SMK) Datuk Peter Mojuntin here on Monday.

The question of credibility arose after several of Dr Mahathir's promises to Shafie were not fulfilled, including the agreement not to bring the Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu) to Sabah and the 20 per cent oil royalty issue as requested before the 14th General Election (GE14).

Meanwhile, Mohd Shafie also responded to Dr Mahathir's actions which gave Warisan a chance until some of the party leaders took over important portfolios in the Cabinet.

"At the time of the appointment of the ministerial posts, we were only a supporter, and not in the Pakatan Harapan.

"I had suggested we put some friends (in the party) to be federal ministers, I just mentioned their names," he said.

He added that Dr Mahathir's commitment to Sabah was evident by the appointment of several party leaders such as Datuk Darrel Leiking, Datuk VK Liew and Datuk Mohamaddin Ketapi as members of the Cabinet.