Pakatan demands white paper on oil blocks

Pakatan Rakyat elected representatives and senators are demanding that the federal government table a white paper to Parliament on the controversy surrounding two oil-rich areas purportedly “given” to Brunei.

Senator Syed Husin Ali ( right ) told a press conference at the Parliament lobby today that he has submitted a motion to Senate President Abu Zahar Ujang this morning to debate the matter.

Syed Husin said that it was an important issue and must be discussed by Parliament, as explanations given by former Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and Petronas were deemed unsatisfactory.

“If it is a win-win solution, we want to know how Malaysia will benefit because it was initially Malaysian territory,” he reasoned.

Syed Husin, who is PKR deputy president, was referring to Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak’s claim that the deal with Brunei would bring a win-win solution to resolve sea and land boundary issues.

The prime minister stressed that the matter was being dealt as a package, including the role Petronas could play in the exploration and development of Block L and M, which is estimated to contain RM320 billion worth of crude oil and gas.

Unconstitutional

Pokok Sena MP Mahfuz Omar, who was also at the press conference, said the deal brokered during the Abdullah administration was unconstitutional.

He said that the constitution contains no provisions that allow the federal government to surrender the sovereign rights of any Malaysian territory to another country.

Elaborating, Mahfuz ( left) said that even if the federal government decided to alter state borders, a motion must be passed in the state assembly. He gave the example of Putrajaya, which was carved out of Selangor and turned into a federal territory.

In the present case, Parliament was never even notified of the matter, decried Mahfuz, who is also PAS vice-president.

Mahfuz then challenged the federal government to explain to Parliament the laws and procedures used in surrendering the two areas to Brunei.

"A special sitting of the Dewan Rakyat must be called to discuss this issue and the Cabinet should table a white paper to explain the decision," he said.

‘No Israeli infiltration’

In an unrelated development, Deputy Home Minister Abu Seman Yusop ( right ) told the Dewan Negara that there were no former Israeli military officers involved in the Police Reporting System (PRS) project as claimed by the opposition.

He said the company involved in the project was Asiasoft (M) Sdn Bhd, a company which is 70 percent owned by locals, while the balance was held by Singapore-based Asiasoft (S) Pte Ltd.

"When the PRS project was implemented, no employee from Asiasoft (S) Pte Ltd was involved because all the personnel involved were locals who had been scrutinised by the police force,” he said.

He said that five months after the third phase of the PRS project was completed in March 2007, Asiasoft (S) Pte Ltd underwent restructuring and two of its new directors were Israelis.

"Following the share restructuring, police force had conducted internal investigation and found that there is no involvement of any foreigners especially Israeli in the development of PRS," he stressed.

Unconvinced, Syed Husin displayed a letter to the press, purportedly written by former federal police logistics department director Mahsuri Zainal to Home Ministry chief secretary and challenged the government to deny its contents.

This is the same letter dated Dec 1, 2008 used by Dewan Rakyat opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim to allege that the police communications server room was infiltrated by Israeli agents.

Among others, Mahsuri wrote that two former Israeli intelligence officers had worked on the PRS project and called on the government to take immediate action.

Syed Husin said there has been no official response to the letter thus far.

"If the letter content is not true, state the reason," he challenged.