KOTA KINABALU - Sabah Barisan Nasional (BN) Chairman Datuk Seri Bung Moktar Radin states he is not a traitor who is preventing the efforts for claims of the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63).
He instead suggested that it was time for the Sabah leaders to act smartly to claim the rights of the people as stipulated in the MA63 from the federal government.
"I’m not a traitor, I only said it is time for Sabah leaders to take more intelligent actions and had never asked to deny MA63.
"What I said was a smart leader would find solutions while weak and frail leaders will always play around with the issue knowing it won't be solved," he said in a statement today.
He said this in response to the allegations brought up by BN leaders regarding the recent efforts to realise the demands of MA63 at the Sabah BN Convention.
The Sabah Deputy Chief Minister also said only smart leaders could find ways to achieve MA63 claims without overreacting and showing their emotions.
"There is a proverb for these unwise leaders, like a dog barking to a mountain, after hundreds of years barking, the mountain won't fall.
"Smarter leaders, in this case, would be the smart dogs following trails towards the peak and getting what it wants," he said.
The Sabah Umno leader said the new agreement suggested in MA63 claims means that all issues which were obstacles or constraints to implement the agreement to be abolished.
He said with the agreement, Sabah would gain much more allocation and not be led by leaders who were willing to fight but by leaders who looked for cheap publicity.
He said that the MA63 agreement was sealed years ago; however, there were no solutions even after many leaders fought towards the issues, and there were those imprisoned for it.
"The fact is even though this issue has been discussed hundreds or even thousands of times, with multiple leaders coming and going, some leaders alone bringing this issue into prison for being too emotional or 'extreme' however, the MA63 agreement issue is still unsolved.
"The struggles to get Sabah rights in MA63 is still not achieved," he said.