Sabah Chief Minister Musa Aman said Pakatan Rakyat's pledge to increase Sabah's oil royalty payments from 5 percent to 20 percent is an illogical promise.

In an interview with Mingguan Malaysia - the Sunday edition of Utusan Malaysia - published today, Musa said oil monies handled by Putrajaya are eventually channeled back to Sabah.

musa aman pc in sabah 190608 01 Musa ( right ) said the federal government needs to spend money on infrastructure like schools, hospitals, roads and so on.

Other expenditure essential to Sabah, said Musa, includes defence and internal security costs.

Thus, said Musa, the allocation of oil monies must be viewed from a broad perspective.

"It is an illogical promise (by Pakatan). As part of a country, we need to give and take," he said.

Pakatan has been dangling the oil royalty carrot to Sabahan voters soon after the March 2008 general election.

PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim has repeatedly made the promise, which he said was unfairly denied to Sabah - the most impoverished state in Malaysia.

However, BN leaders claim that Anwar was merely fishing for votes and Putrajaya has been channeling a large amount of funds in every Malaysia Plan to help development.

Illegal immigrants

On Sabah's large illegal immigrants population , Musa said much has being done to resolve the problem.

He said Sabah's economic development had attracted many foreigners to the state to earn a living.

"I admit it is not an easy task to resolve in a short period," he said.

NONE Musa said Putrajaya has formed a special committee led by Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin ( left ) to look into the matter and there is a state-level committee as well.

He said many programmes have been undertaken by the police, military and immigration department to repatriate the illegal immigrants.

He said that the authorities have problems handling Filipino immigrants because there is no Filipino mission in Sabah, whereas Indonesia has a consulate set up in Kota Kinabalu.

"If the opposition claims that we are doing nothing, it is far from the truth.

"We are trying all we can to resolve this problem, but it will take time," he said.