By : MARIAH DOKSIL
KOTA KINABALU: State Reform
Party (Star) Sabah is giving the State Government six weeks to restore
ownership rights of Sabah’s oil and gas resources, or the people would proceed
with legal action, according to its chairman Datuk Dr Jeffrey Kitingan.
He told a press conference
at TNGC Beverly Hills yesterday that Petronas missed the point when it acted as
if it was the sole custodian of Malaysia’s oil and gas.
He was responding to the
statement by Petronas that it could not afford to increase the cash payment to
20 per cent to the oil-producing states as proposed by Pakatan Rakyat.
“The Federal Government is
also irresponsible in using Petronas as its mouthpiece to reject the claims of
the oil-producing states for increases in the cash payment from the current
five per cent.
“The Federal Government and
Petronas have totally ignored the fact that oil and gas resources belong to
Kelantan, Terengganu, Sabah and Sarawak, in the first place. It did not belong
to the Federal Government and definitely not Petronas,” Jeffrey asserted.
He said from Sabah and
Sarawak’s point of view, it should not be trapped into discussing the increase
of the five per cent cash payment. In fact, he said, many of Sabah’s leaders
were still confused with the five per cent cash payment.
“It is not royalty as in the
1976 Oil Agreement; the State Government was pressured to reject or waive its
right to collect royalty.
The real issue now, said
Jeffrey, was not the amount of cash payment but the validity of Tun Abdul
Razak’s Vesting Order to Petronas as the oil and gas belonged to Sabah and
Sarawak.
“Such vesting to Petronas
has to be unconstitutional and invalid,” he said.
“Therefore, Petronas and the
Federal Government, and Pakatan Rakyat as the alternative front, and their
leaders should be talking, firstly about restoring and returning the ownership
of the oil rights to Sabah and Sarawak and then, secondly re-negotiate for the
state to contribute a portion of the oil revenue to the Federal Government or
Petronas.
He said Star Sabah would be
handing over a memorandum to the Chief Minister’s office by Monday or Tuesday,
calling for restoration of the ownership of the oil and gas, otherwise the
people of Sabah, with the support of Star Sabah, would bring the issue to
court, including the issue of Blocks L and M. (BP)
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