Kelantan rejects Territorial Sea Act at assembly

The federal government used the law to restrict the waters off states to three nautical miles and this denied the state the right to receive petroleum royalty, says PAS assemblyman.

KOTA BARU: The Kelantan legislative assembly approved a motion today rejecting the Territorial Sea Act 2012.

State Human Development, Education and Higher Education Committee chairman Dr Mohamed Fadzli Hassan tabled the motion calling on the state government to reject the Act.

He alleged that the federal government used the law to restrict the waters off states to three nautical miles from shore.

Dr Mohamed Fadzli (PAS-Temangan) claimed that this denied Kelantan the right to receive petroleum royalty of five per cent.

He said when the federal government had emergency declarations repealed in 2011, the legislation used to acquire the continential shelf and territorial seas off states became void.

“As a result, ownership of the continental shelf shifted from the federal government to the respective state governments,” he said.

During the debate, a Barisan Nasional state assemblyman said the members of the assembly could only enact laws and not interpret them.

Interpretation had to be left to the courts, said Mat Yusoff Abdul Ghani (BN-Nenggiri) who questioned the action of the PAS-led state government in tabling the motion to reject the Act.

“As assemblymen, we can only enact laws. We can seek our right through talks (with the federal government) or the courts,” he said.

The motion, which was debated for two and a half hours, was approved.

The assembly adjourned sine die.

– BERNAMA