KOTA KINABALU: Sabah is on the right track of having 90 percent local workforce in the State Federal civil service by 2020, Special Tasks Minister Datuk Seri Teo Chee Kang said.
Teo said there are now 88,597 locals out of 112,347 Federal public servants in the state or about 79 percent of the workforce.
As for teachers, locals make up 82.65 percent of those who are serving in secondary schools and 87.58 percent in primary schools.
There are also 82 locals heading 159 Federal departments or agencies in the State, Teo said adding all these follow efforts to increase the number of locals in the Federal service.
Teo said this in response to Datuk Lajim Ukin (Harapan Rakyat-Klias) who asked about actions taken by the Barisan Nasional led government in restoring and upholding the rights of the Sabah people as enshrined in the Malaysia Agreement 1963.
“The state government is committed to address the need to restore the special rights of people of Sabah,” he said.
Teo, who is also the State Rights Committee Chairman, agreed to a supplementary question by Lajim on certain heads of departments are only holding the positions but do not really have the power in making decisions.
He said Lajim’s question is relevant and the government will look into empowering the people as genuine devolution power will help minimise red tape.
Teo said when discussing about the agreement, substance is more important than the semantic or terminology used in the document.
“When it comes to the interpretation, it is not the form but the substance (of the document) that Sabah and Sarawak have special rights and cannot be questioned.
“We (Sabah) have the rights to enact our own laws as stated in the state list in the Federal Constitution, rights on revenues and financial providence to the state,” he replied Datuk Wilfred Bumburing (Parti Cinta Sabah-Tamparuli) who raised the question on definition of "Federation" and "devolution" terms.
In Nov 2015, the state government has formed the State Rights Committee to study the agreement. The committee has also invited 17 political parties to attend a public hearing here in January.
Their inputs were filed in the Sabah Special Rights report which was later handed to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak in May.
Among issues included in the report are the power to amend laws, return the rights of distributing electricity and gas to the state, abolishment of cabotage policy, administrative and appointment of judiciary officials at Sabah and Sarawak High Courts, and definition of “federation” among others.