"FUNNILY, THIS SORT OF PROMISE (OIL ROYALTY REVIEW) MANAGED TO ATTRACT SOME OF THE VOTERS IN THE STATE TO VOTE FOR THE OPPOSITION. IMAGINE THE NUMBER OF VOTES THE BARISAN NASIONAL WILL GET IF THE ROYALTY CAN BE REVIEWED BEFORE THE COMING ELECTION,"

YBs urge oil royalty review

Published on: Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Kota Kinabalu: Calls were made in the State Legislative Assembly to ask the State Government to re-negotiate with its Federal counterpart the quantum of oil royalty Sabah has been receiving all this while.

Two government backbenchers who participated in the debate on the Head of State's policy speech at the State Legislative Assembly, Monday, said a review of the oil royalty was appropriate after more than 30 years.

Kiulu Assemblyman, Datuk Louis Rampas, said there was no doubt the Federal Government had given Sabah huge allocations for development programmes annually.

"But the issue of oil royalty and development allocation to me are two different matters," he said, adding he believed there was nothing in the oil agreement that prevents the State Government from requesting the Federal Government for a review.

"The recent discovery of new oil reserves is also a factor that justifies the request for an increase," he said.

According to him, the cordial relationship between the State and Federal governments must be taken advantage of in a positive way.

"People say knock and the door will be opened, ask and it will be given.

No one will give if nobody asks for it É belum cuba belum tahu (won't know until you try)," he said.

Pointing out that the request should not be perceived as trying to take advantage, he felt no one would say that the request is unreasonable if Sabah asked for it.

Furthermore, he said the credibility of Chief Minister Datuk Seri Musa Aman in leading the State in producing a good track record in a short time was also a basis to support the request.

He said the Prime Minister had acknowledged Sabah and Sarawak as the "fixed deposit" for Barisam Nasional and a very lucrative investment for the Federal Government.

"Interest for fixed deposit is normally negotiable between the investor and bank so what (about) in the context of Sabah and Sarawak as the fixed deposit?," he asked.

Towards this end, Louis urged other assemblymen to give their support to the State Government so as to adopt the request for the Federal Government's attention.

He said the call was totally different from the one made by the opposition who had from the start promised to raise the oil royalty to 20 per cent if they become the government.

"Funnily, this sort of promise managed to attract some of the voters in the State to vote for the opposition. Imagine the number of votes the Barisan Nasional will get if the royalty can be reviewed before the coming election," he said.

Besides, Louis said Petronas should also seriously think about setting up a university or higher learning institution in Sabah.

"This is reasonable because a big portion of the revenue obtained by Petronas comes from the oil extracted from Sabah. Petronas must expand their contribution by implementing projects that have direct impact on the society," he said.

His Bingkor counterpart, Justin Guka, said it was of utmost importance for the State Government to initiate re-negotiation of the royalty to prevent the opposition from using it as an issue in the next election.

He said even former Petronas Chairman, Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah had said there was nothing to stop the people of Sabah from getting the State government to call for a review of the oil agreement.

At the same time, he said the government must also seriously consider setting up an oil and gas processing plant in the State to directly benefit from its own natural resources.

At the moment, he said such plant was instead built in Melaka, "which is only benefiting the people in Peninsular Malaysia although maybe there could be one or two working in Bintulu (LNG plant)".

To this end, Gum Gum Assemblyman, Datuk Edris Yahya asked Justin whether he had taken into consideration the huge allocation given by the Federal Government to Sabah every year.

"So don't you think that it is unfair to raise this issue in the House," he asked.

Justin responded that it was not wrong to ask for this and that the Federal allocation could also be from the revenue of Sabah oil in the past.

"Giving allocation is the responsibility of the Federal Government to develop Sabah which is most lagging in the country," he said.

He said if the State BN government were able to get the review due to their own initiative before the election it could no longer be played up by the opposition as an issue.

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