Perikatan Nasional lawmakers have put a racial spin on Putrajaya's announcement that Kelantan and Terengganu do not qualify for the five percent oil royalties.
However, Community Communications Department (J-Kom) director Mohammad Agus Yusoff (above) said both states and PN only have themselves to blame for the matter.
Last week, the government said the Territorial Sea Act allowed states to only claim rights up to three nautical miles.
Law and Institutional Reform Minister Azalina Othman Said also said any payments that have been made to the states previously were goodwill payments (wang ehsan), and not royalties from Petronas.
Commenting on this in a Facebook post today, Agus questioned why PN made no efforts to amend the law while in power.
He pointed out that the previous finance minister, Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz, had already pointed out the legal limitations of the Territorial Sea Act when explaining why Petronas did not pay out royalties in the Peninsular.
"Under the PN government, the law minister Takiyuddin Hassan did not take the Territorial Sea Act to be abolished.
"Interestingly, (after Zafrul's explanation) the state governments made no noise and did not raise allegations of discrimination against Malays as they were in the Keluarga Malaysia government together," Agus said.
The remark about discrimination was in reference to PN lawmakers alleging that Kelantan and Terengganu were being marginalised, and linking the matter to race.
Kuala Terengganu MP Ahmad Amzad Mohamed had on Monday, said that the two "main Malay belt states" were being undermined on the issue of petroleum revenues.
He also expressed concern that Kelantan and Terengganu would only get a small chunk of development funds under the 12th Malaysia Plan.
"I am concerned that after this if the six (poorest) states are visualised on a pie chart in terms of share of development funds, it is true that more than 50 percent (of 12MP) development funds (go to these six states).
"But (I worry) that Kelantan and Terengganu will get a very small slice of the cake, to the point it is clearly menganaktirikan (sidelining) Malay states," he had said while debating Budget 2023 in Parliament.
Prioritise Malay-based states
Meanwhile, Pasir Mas MP Ahmad Fadhli Shaari had on the same day urged the government to prioritise Malay-based states, naming Kelantan and Terengganu as examples.
He had cited the panned survey by five media organisations that alleged 71 percent of Malays were dissatisfied with Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim's first 100 days in office.
Responding to this, Agus said it was unreasonable for the opposition to play the race card in the royalty issue as the government of the day was acting within the law.
Read more: J-Kom head questions 'Anwar 100 days' survey method
"My advice to the opposition is, don't fan racial sentiments to oppose a government’s decision they did not agree with, as this can threaten racial harmony," he said.
He added that debates on Budget 2023 should be more substantive and not focused on race.
Agus said any dispute over the law should also be settled in court.
However, he pointed out that Kelantan had retracted its suit against Putrajaya for oil royalties in 2019, after the federal government made a "one-off" RM400 million payment to the state.
"The issue is, why did the state government withdraw the suit?" he asked. - Mkini
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