Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) has raised the issue of petroleum royalty given to Sarawak in its campaign to the run-up of the May 20 state elections.

The matter was brought up by party president Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail during a ceramah yesterday.

Commenting on the matter today, Sarawak Deputy Chief Minister George Chan Hong Nam ( right ) pinned the blame on PKR adviser Anwar Ibrahim, who is also Wan Azizah's husband.

Anwar was also the former deputy premier and finance minister before his unceremonious exit in 1998.

Chan said he could not understand why the opposition party was raising this when it was Anwar who had rejected a request for a bigger petroleum royalty for Sarawak when he was the finance minister.

"When he (Anwar) was the finance minister, I myself asked for an increment in the petroleum royalty but he didn't give. Why is his party talking about it now?" he was quoted as saying by Bernama .

"I asked for more development for Sarawak because we don't have enough (development) and he also did not want to give (allocations). Why is PKR talking about it now?

"Why didn't he give us more when he was in power? Now he is no more in power, he can talk," he added.

At the ceramah yesterday, Wan Azizah said the people of Sarawak should not be paying more for petroleum products because the state produced the commodity.

She claimed that since Sarawak was a large petroleum-producing state, it should be paid more than the five percent royalty it now received.

Chan, who is president of the Sarawak United People's Party (SUPP), said PKR had no right to manipulate and misrepresent the issue to the people as it was Anwar who had rejected Sarawak's request for the oil royalty increment.

Global phenonemon

He also said that the oil price hike was a global phenomenon and even the opposition parties would not be able to avert passing on the oil price increase to the people if they were in power.

"If we bring them (the opposition) in and they come to power, can they bring the oil price of US$75 per barrel down? I don't think so because they cannot change the world oil price.

"If we in the government cannot change it, can they do it?" he asked.

Chan said the oil price hike in the world market was inevitable, and the Barisan Nasional government was doing its best to reduce the economic impact on the people.

Touching on another issue raised by Wan Azizah, he said the state government could not eliminate the squatter problem in the blink of an eye.

Wan Azizah had claimed that Miri had some 7,000 squatter houses, the highest number of such houses in the state.

"The squatter problem in Miri is being overcome steadily ... we eliminate the problem in stages by providing more low-cost houses for the people," said the deputy chief minister, adding that there were only about 2,000 to 3,000 squatters in the resort city and not 7,000 as claimed by the PKR.

"We have resettled and relocated 4,000 to 5,000 squatters to low-cost houses. And our low-cost houses are among the best in terms of quality that you can find in the country. Are we still not doing anything?" he asked.