Let’s be fair to Bersatu, too

 

The sentiments expressed in the article Give us back our sea (FMT April 13) is completely out of sync with the government of the day, led by Bersatu.

The statement reflects badly on the legislation that has been put in place to govern, not only the territorial waters of Sabah, Sarawak and the peninsula, but also the mineral deposits underneath them.

Prior to the formation of Petronas, there was the Petroleum Mining Act 1966 (Revised 1972) that governed all the activities related to the mining of oil and the proposed formation of the Petroleum Authority.

This Act, legislated three years after Sabah and Sarawak came together to form Malaysia, in September 1963, included both territories but for the offshore areas only, not onshore.

The formation of Petronas, which came much later, on Oct 1, 1974, via the Petroleum Development Act obviously had far-reaching effects, especially for those areas with oil and gas deposits – Terengganu, Sarawak and then eventually Sabah. Their share of the windfall was limited to 5% only, whatever the production figures were, and the amount became a source of discontent.

Petronas was placed under the Prime Minister’s Office and reported only to the PM, and became the sole authority with wide powers over exploration and exploitation of oil and gas, both onshore and offshore.

The vesting of the ownership, rights, powers, liberties and privileges under Petronas, were deemed right at the time of its formation in 1974 by virtue of the support across the floor in the Dewan Rakyat for this Act to be passed. But now, it’s a different story.

Is it really an unfair split, 95% against a mere 5%? Could it be that some state leaders politicised the issues? Perhaps, some local leaders miscalculated their wealth. They saw the dollar signs when oil was discovered, but forgot that the world oil market plays a big role in determining how much that 5% is really worth.

Can Bersatu be blamed for this predicament?

Since oil was discovered offshore in Sabah in 2002 (Kikeh field was discovered by Murphy Oil), Sarawak found a new common friend in raising and objecting to the same issue.

Territorial Sea Act 2012

The Petroleum Development Act, which provides only 5% royalty for each state for oil and gas production, has lately been confused with the Territorial Sea Act 2012.

This Act now defines offshore as being three nautical miles from the shore line. This definition is opposed to the previous understanding reached at the formation of Malaysia, where offshore (oil and gas discoveries) was defined as 12 nautical miles.

All these Acts have now morphed into one giant contentious issue for Sabah and Sarawak, while Terengganu is always slow to comprehend.

It used to be that the Sarawak government normally raised these oil and gas issues once every five years or whenever there were state elections. The build-up into a fierce campaign of anti-KL (now Putrajaya) normally whittles down after they win the state elections.

Sabah under Bersatu is no different.

One would imagine that by now, most seasoned voters of Sarawak would understand this political game plan.

Pointing out the wrongdoings of Putrajaya has been a winning strategy; shadowing all the domestic issues on corruption, cronyism and lack of accountability on state expenditure and some of the wasteful projects that the state undertook and failed.

Clearly, the lack of leadership positions for the native majority, the Ibans and Bidayuhs, is alarming and shocking. This is the number one issue in Sarawak, not oil and gas.

Even Bersatu, despite their high Iban and Bidayuh memberships, is not welcome in the state. The government administration is controlled by a minority group, and so is the wealth of the state.

Issues plaguing the majority groups especially on poverty, poor living conditions without clean water and electricity, lack of educational facilities and poor health services, would not be raised and discussed openly.

And yet ownership of oil and gas-related projects given out by Petronas is now becoming more trendy after the wealth from the forests, tropical timber, is slowly diminishing. Almost every other politician has an interest in the oil and gas company.

No landside facilities

Sabah’s predicament in oil and gas is twofold.

First is the 5% royalty issue, which is mainly related to the current low production and low crude price. This means the state is not getting as much as they thought they would get when oil was first discovered.

The second issue concerns the decision made by Petronas, to export the crude oil directly from the Floating, Production, Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessel.

Since neither crude oil nor gas reach the Sabah shore, no landside facilities are built to cater for the local economy and the accompanying job creation from these popular commodities.

In Terengganu or Sarawak, crude oil and gas are landed onshore where complete facilities for storage, refining and gas processing are available as well as export terminals and supporting facilities, Sabah is devoid of all these.

Sabahans feel cheated, to say the least. Even the smallest of the gas pipelines are linked to Bintulu, to feed the existing gas processing plant over there. No reception facilities mean no jobs for the locals and their economy is very much affected.

Parliament to de-legislate

This brings us to the most pertinent question. Most of those who speak on these issues are politicians. Some are also members of Parliament.

So, they surely understand that to amend the unwanted legislation or to initiate any changes to any key components within those Acts which they are very much against, means they have to go back to Parliament.

There is no point really in politicising those issues unless you are campaigning to be re-elected in an election. It makes Bersatu look bad.

And yet those politicians are all part of the current government. If they are truly sincere, they should ask for Parliament to reconvene and push for the bills to amend the Acts. The Acts were passed by Parliament in 1966, 1974 and 2012.

One would assume that the MPs from Sabah and Sarawak at that time, who were also part of the government, voted for these legislations for them to become Acts, passed and gazetted.

Among the Acts in contention are the Petroleum Mining Act 1966 (Revised 1972); Petroleum Development Act 1974; Territorial Sea Act 2012

To be fair to Bersatu, a debate in Parliament over these Acts would be a step in the right direction. - FMT

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.