Mustapha says not informed of Putrajaya’s motion to stay High Court order on Sabah’s 40pct special grant

KOTA KINABALU (March 6): Datuk Seri Mustapha Sakmud has expressed surprise at the federal government’s move to file a motion to stay the implementation of a High Court order related to Sabah’s 40 per cent special grant entitlement.

The issue surfaced after Tuaran MP Datuk Seri Wilfred Madius Tangau revealed in a Facebook post on Thursday that the federal government had on Feb 27 sought to suspend the implementation of the Kota Kinabalu High Court order dated Oct 17, 2025.

The court order had ruled in favour of the Sabah Law Society (SLS) in its legal challenge concerning Sabah’s constitutional entitlement to a 40 per cent special grant from federal revenue collected in the state.

“I was also quite surprised about this notice of motion. I do not have detailed information yet, but I will obtain the information and raise it at the Cabinet meeting to find out what actually happened,” the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Sabah and Sarawak) told reporters here after delivering a ministerial mandate at the Federal Government Administrative Complex.

Mustapha said he could not comment further at this stage as discussions on the issue were still ongoing within the technical committee involving various stakeholders.

“I do not have the information, so I cannot comment. We only met recently in the technical committee on March 2, attended by all parties.

“At that time, the position in principle was still that the federal government would fulfil the 40 per cent entitlement and that it would not be appealed,” he said.

He added that during the meeting, the Ministry of Finance (MoF) had continued to present reports on the progress of discussions, including the establishment of several subcommittees to evaluate relevant data.

“As I have mentioned before, the meetings have been held three times, and several subcommittees have been set up to assess all the available data. That process is still ongoing,” he said.

Mustapha said the latest development had not been raised during the technical committee discussions and he hoped the Attorney General’s Chambers (AGC) and the MoF would provide further clarification.

“The latest development took me by surprise because from the discussions in the technical committee, the issue did not arise. I hope the AGC and the MoF will provide their reports,” he said.

He urged all parties to remain calm and avoid drawing premature conclusions.

“I do not want to jump to conclusions. I hope all parties will remain calm until we obtain the actual information. Once we have the facts, then we can give our views,” he said.

In his Facebook post, Madius had questioned why such a significant move was carried out without public notification to the people of Sabah.

He also pointed out that on Nov 11, 2025, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim had publicly stated that the federal government had only filed an appeal against the grounds of the High Court judgment and not against the decision recognising Sabah’s entitlement to the 40 per cent special grant.

Madius said the latest document suggested a troubling pattern of inconsistency, as the motion appeared to seek a stay on the implementation of the High Court order that had favoured SLS.