WILL DAP ASK FOR 50% OIL ROYALTY?

“WILL Sabah DAP lead Sabah Pakatan and ask for 50% oil revenue for Sabah and more particularly demand for 50% if and when Pakatan forms the next federal government,” asked Dr. Felix Chong Kat Fah of STAR Sabah.

“Similarly, will the Sabah BN ask for 50% of the oil revenue for Sabah? As part of STAR Sabah’s causes and aspirations for Sabah, STAR is seeking an increase of the oil revenue to 50% nett revenue. It is set out in STAR’s Petroleum Masterplan which is comprehensive and covers a wide range of policies for Sabah’s oil and gas beneficial to Sabah and Sabahans.”

An increase from 5% to 50% will bring in an additional amount of about RM7.0 billion a year for Sabah. It will definitely help Sabahans and alleviate if not eliminate poverty in Sabah.

The additional RM7.0 billion will be proof that Sabah is not the poorest not just mere election gimmick and sweeping statement Iike what the PM has said without providing any concrete evidence.

Mind you, when the World Bank announced in 2010 that not only Sabah was the poorest but also 40% of all poor in Malaysia was found in Sabah and Labuan, it was after research done by the world body. It was not a sweeping statement without proof.

With its oil and gas, Sabah should be the second richest if not the richest. It is an insult to Sabahans to say, and not even proven, that Sabah is richer than Kelantan who are not even given their oil revenue.

As for the RM4.5 billion Sabah Ammonia Urea (SAMUR) Project in Sipitang, all the profits will be going to Petronas leaving nothing except left-over crumbs as so-called 'spin-off'. It is not as though Sabah has at least 30%-50% profit sharing.

If the left-over crumbs are trumpeted as great 'spin-offs' and is the way how Sabah as an oil-producing State is to be treated by the BN government, it will be no surprise if Sabah remains the poorest.

Sabah as a State is not poor, only the majority of the people are poor and only a few well-connected are rich.

STAR Sabah’s vision for Sabah’s oil and gas is just but one of the reasons why I joined STAR to fight for Sabah’s rights and autonomy. Every patriotic Sabahan should support STAR’s cause to fight for Sabah and Sabahans and their future generations.

Does Sabah DAP and Sabah Pakatan show such vision and plan? If so, why only ask for increase of oil revenue to 20% and not 50% or more and be better than STAR?

Sabah BN definitely are too cowered by sub-servience to their political masters in the Peninsular and have no political will or the spine to ask for any increase, not even 20%. If any statement is made, it will be mere lip service and election gimmick like what PBS, Upko and LDP leaders have said on the RCI.