Sabah and Sarawak should use their parliamentary strength of 56 MPs as a bargaining power in  supporting a DAP motion on the increase of oil and gas royalty to  be tabled in the coming parliamentary session, urged State Reform Party (Sabah Star) chief Jeffrey Kitingan.

“The leaders of the oil producing states, particularly Sabah and Sarawak, should synchronise their actions and act as one on the ‘oil royalty’ issue to strengthen their case for a better deal on their oil resources,” he said when commenting on the motion.

The motion, to be tabled by Sarawak DAP MP for Bandar Kuching Chong Chieng Jen seeks to raise oil and gas royalty from 5 percent to 20 percent.

"While I would have preferred to see a joint action between Sabah and Sarawak to review the oil deal in toto with the return of oil ownership rights to all the oil producing states, including Terengganu and Kelantan, this motion is an incremental step in the right direction,” he said.

Expressing optimism, Jeffrey, ( right ) who has been a strong advocate for the restoration of the Borneo states’ rights including the return of oil ownership,  said that he believes the actions initiated by Sarawak lawmakers can lead to a review of the oil rights of Sabah and Sarawak given the right strategy and circumstances.

“If the federal government and Petronas do not listen to the views of the people of the Borneo states on the oil royalty/ownership rights, the Sabah and Sarawak lawmakers should make it expressly and unequivocally clear that they will abandon the BN mothership and if need be, to pull out of the Federation,” he said.

He said that besides boosting the cash payments (widely referred to as oil royalty), the two  governments should also open discussions on ownership rights as well as share holding stakes in Petronas for all the four oil producing states.

The Sarawak Council Negeri started the ball rolling with the passage of the motion by a unanimous 71-0 vote seeking to push up ‘oil royalty’ to 20 percent.   

The move took on more significant as it was debated and passed on a motion tabled by Sarawak BN, although the opposition Sarawak DAP had submitted a similar motion.

Firm stand’s clearly rewarding

The lawmakers of Sarawak have stated their unequivocal stand on their oil resources and the oil cash payment issue now moves on to the parliamentary level at the forthcoming session on June 9.  

“The DAP parliamentary motion is now enhanced by the reply of Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak at the Malaysia Gawai Dayak Open House in Miri that the federal government will give utmost consideration to Sarawak’s request for higher oil and gas royalties in response to Chief Minister Adenan Satem’s speech requesting for higher oil royalties,” said Jeffrey, assemblyperson for Bingkor.

Praising the Sarawak administration, Jeffrey said that it was encouraging to see the Sarawak government finally taking a decisive step towards reclaiming their rights and the opposition representatives voting in tandem in  common interest their state.   

“This was in sharp contrast to Sabah where a similar motion to review the Petroleum Agreement was rejected outright.   In fact, even a mention of such a review by the assemblyperson  from Bingkor was arrogantly brushed aside by an emotionally charged chief minister.

 “This is the difference between Sabah, ruled by Umno, and Sarawak, ruled by their own political parties”, said Jeffrey, saying that the  world is now watching Sabah’s next move, particularly the Sabah Umno’s leaders in relation to the oil royalty/ownership issue.  

“Will they seek to regain Sabah’s oil and act in tandem with the Sarawak government or condemn Sabah’s future generations to unwarranted poverty?

“As it is now, for rejecting the motion on the oil issue, the people are already judging the people behind the rejection as traitors of Sabah.  

“In time to come, the actions of the Sabah BN leaders will be judged by history,” he said.