A Barisan Nasional (MP) today took state oil giant Petronas to task for only being driven by profit and neglecting the people.

Bung Moktar Radin (BN-Kinabatangan) felt that Petronas had created tension among certain quarters in Indonesia, resulting in some organising demonstrations and burning the Malaysian flag.

"... As far as Petronas is concerned, it should not be too excited to drill for oil to the extent of neglecting development in Sabah," he added when debating the motion on the royal address at the Dewan Rakyat.

The parliamentarian said he was irked to learn that Melaka despite not having any revenue from oil, was blessed with a petro-chemical refinery, while Sabah did not have it.

Bug Moktar warned that he would act against Petronas if it did not do so.

"Without doing so, Petronas will be contravening the Yang di-Pertuan Agong's call for a balanced development in all the states," he was quoted as saying by Bernama .

Idris Harun (BN-Tangga Batu) said building refineries was "not a wise idea" because their existence would lead to pollution problem.

"I have seen what happen in my own constituency. The youths may be able to get jobs from these projects, but the housing areas are polluted," he added

He also expressed surprise why the Department of Environment did not seem to do anything to overcome the problem.

Unforgivable action

Earlier, Bung Moktar also took the Indonesian government to task over the anti-Malaysia demonstrations in the republic.

"Their (flag-burning) action is unforgivable and the Indonesian government should have been able to prevent the demonstrations ...," he said.

The demonstrations were sparked off following Petronas' decision to grant oil concessions to Shell in two blocks off Sulawesi which is being disputed by the two countries.

Indonesian and Malaysian navy vessels were dispatched to the site amid concerns of war erupting between the two neighbours.

However, leaders of both countries stressed that the matter would be resolved diplomatically.