‘Musa must discuss lost oil blocks revenue’

Sabah opposition has described PBS' soon-to-be tabled resolution as a 'face-saving gimmick' for Pairin Kitingan who co-signed the originald deal.

KOTA KINABALU: The Sabah Barisan Nasional government will get a second bite of its oil riches cherry when it opens “amicable discussions” with the federal government over the bargain basement rates it sold off state resources over 30 years ago.

The opposition in the state has pointed out that with the state Barisan Nasional government’s willingness to ask for a better deal on its oil wealth, the door has also opened to pursuing the state’s oil rights that was surrendered to neighbour Brunei without its consent.

Seizing on Sabah Chief Minister Musa Aman’s comment that the state government would consider opening talk with the federal government to raise from 5% the oil royalty it is presently getting from national oil company Petronas for extracting the precious commodity from Sabah, the Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) said the the contentious surrender of Sabah’s rights to oil-bearing areas within its waters should also be on the table for discussion.

Musa, taking his cue from his Sarawak counterpart Taib Mahmud, said last week that the state Barisan Nasional government would consider opening “amicable discussions” with federal government on the discount rates the federal government bought Sabah’s oil and gas in 1976.

SAPP women wing chief, Melanie Chia said Musa’s willingness to open talks on the matter also puts the issue of the surrender of Blocks L & M, two oil fields off Sabah, to Brunei during the tenure of former premier Abdullah Ahmad Badawi on the table.

She said that this was only appropriate since the blocks were surrendered without the state government’s knowledge and would be a mark of sincerity and commitment by the Barisan Nasional to protect the rights and interests of Sabah.

“The government owes an explanation to the people of Sabah on the loss of these two productive oil fields and the loss of income from the oil and gas extraction from these two blocks of oil fields,” Chia said.

Chia said that the failure to address this issue would mean that “it is yet another ‘sandiwara’ (soap opera) by the BN government to pacify the people of Sabah in order to retain its ‘fixed deposit’ state in the coming 13th general election.

Pairin-Harris signed agreement
Opposition leaders noted that the recent remarks by the various state BN leaders supporting Musa’s comments appeared to show that the BN government was desperate to halt its slide in popularity.

Chia who is also the Luyang assemblywoman pointed out that the present Sabah government had over the last several years repeatedly said that it was not necessary to review the oil agreement because the federal government was giving Sabah billions of ringgit in allocations.

“This was always the answer given by the Chief Minister in the State Assembly when the subject was raised by me,” she said.

As recently as August last year a motion submitted by the opposition asking the state government to demand for an increase in the payment for oil extracted from Sabah was rejected by the State Legislative Assembly Speaker Salleh Said Keruak.

“The reasons given by the Speaker then for rejecting the tabling of a motion were that Petronas is currently investing billions of ringgit in development projects in Sabah and that the oil agreement is under the jurisdiction of the federal government,” Chia said.

The opposition painted the rejection of the motion then as an act of cowardice and a failure of the BN government to protect the state’s rights and interests at a time when was widely acknowledged as being poverty stricken despite its abundance of natural resources.

Chia meanwhile also dismissed the recent statement by Party Bersatu Sabah (PBS) that it would table a resolution at its coming party congress to request the federal government to increase the yearly oil royalty payment to 20%.

She described it as a “face-saving” gimmick by the party to erase the mistake of its president, Joseph Pairin Kitingan, who was also a signatory to the oil agreement, together with the then chief minister of Sabah Harris Salleh.

Harris has gone on record stating that state leaders then failed to strike a better deal because they were forced to sign the agreement.