Opposition party DAP's sole member of parliament from Sarawak Chong Chieng Jen today said he would highlight two issues when the new session of Parliament begins the state's share from oil and gas revenue, and corruption.

Chong, 33, the newly-elected Bandar Kuching MP, told malaysiakini that considering Sarawak's population and its land size, the state's share of the oil and gas revenue should be increased from five percent to 10 percent "as we need more funds to develop the state which is almost half the size of Malaysia."

Under a profit-sharing agreement signed in the 1970s with Petronas, the national petroleum company, Sarawak is given a five percent share of the gross revenue from oil and gas.

Depending on the prices of oil and gas and the production level in Sarawak, this could bring in as much as RM700 million annually to state coffers, as in the year 2002. The state's other main source of revenue is from timber royalty.

Battling graft

Chong said he would also highlight corruption to support the Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's drive against it.

"We will raise in Parliament the issues of cronyism, market monopoly and crony companies making really big bucks, and in the process pushing up costs of living and affecting the livelihood of so many people," he added.

DAP's win in Bandar Kuching had not come as totally unexpected in a constituency that consists of a largely traditional trading and business community, the elite middle-class, teachers, office and factory workers.

Chong, the state DAP secretary, won by a 2,042-vote majority, polling 17,924 votes against BN's Wee Kok Tiong's 15,873 votes. There was quite a massive swing of 10,000 votes away from the BN from the last parliamentary elections.

Electricity tariff

The DAP had also campaigned on bringing the state's electricity tariff, said to be the highest in the country, down to the same levels as Sabah and Peninsular Malaysia, in order to attract more investors to the state.

Another issue is Chinese education, and during the campaigning period, the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition announced it had set up a fund through its component party SUPP for the relocation of a Chinese school in Kuching to a new site.

But DAP countered by saying relocation should not be an issue but that there should be more Chinese schools in Kuching to cater to those who want to study Chinese among the multi-racial population.