After urging Petronas chief executive officer Shamsul Azhar Abbas to quit, claiming that the national oil company had failed to protect the interests of bumiputras, the United Malay Economic Action Council (Mtem) said it will form a joint committee with Petronas to tackle the matter.

Mtem chairperson Syed Ali Alattas said the committee will find out ways to increase the participation of the Malays and locals in the oil and gas sector in this country, as well as other issues raised previously.

“Petronas and Mtem have agreed to form a joint committee to settle all these problems,” he told a press conference today, adding that this had been proposed by Petronas during a two-hour meeting with the council yesterday.

Although he refused to divulge the content of the “positive” meeting, Syed Ali noted that Shamsul, Mtem chief executive officer Mohd Nizam Mashar, the group’s oil and gas industry cluster chief Tengku Putra Tengku Ahmad and representatives of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) had been present.

He said that Mtem will issue a letter to Shamsul by tomorrow and was looking forward to a reply next week, acknowledging that both parties had reached a consensus during the meeting.

However, he refused to retract his statement asking Shamsul to resign.

“This isn’t a matter of retraction, my statement still stands during that period, but unless he repents... Let us wait for the reply to our letter first,” he added.

Nizam, who also attended today’s press conference, said that Mtem had told the meeting that the council had received many complains from its members, saying that Petronas was only taking care of the business interests of foreign companies, but the Malays and locals are being marginalised.

Syed Ali had raised the same matter during Mtem’s annual general meeting earlier this month, urging Shamsul and the new leadership of Petronas to resign.

Flak from local media

This had brought him flak from the local mainstream media, which cited the leaders of several NGOs as claiming that he has business interests with Petronas.

Nevertheless, Nizam stressed that Syed Ali “has no personal vested interest” in any business trading with the government and Petronas, and asked the respective individuals from the NGOs and the media to retract their allegations.

Syed Ali demanded a public apology from the respective parties, otherwise legal action will be taken against them.

“Once they had done that, once they apologise, we will close the file and move forward. If they don’t close the file, we will proceed to open a new file (at the court),” he added.