SUPP youth central chairperson Michael Tiang (above)  today said that Bandar Kuching MP Chong Chieng Jen’s intention to table a motion in Parliament to amend the Petroleum Development Act 1974 (PDA) may turn out to be a paradox.

“Chong’s intended motion will, in fact, be tantamount to recognising the PDA and its legal standing in Sarawak,” he told Malaysiakini when contacted.

An exasperated Tiang asked how long would it take for DAP to understand that Sarawak, in fact, already owned all the petroleum resources, both onshore and offshore as stipulated under Sarawak (Alteration of Boundaries) Order 1954 by the Queen in Council.

“That was long before Malaysia Day of 1963,” he said.

“In 1958, our council even passed the Oil Mining Ordinance to regulate the laws relating to oil mining in Sarawak and its continental shelf.

“Our rights to our lands and the continental shelf are also clearly enshrined in the Federal Constitution's Article 2.

According to Tiang, since 2011, with the annulment of the Proclamation of Emergency 1969, the Sarawak government is now constitutionally entitled to exercise its original rights over the onshore and offshore mining of oil and gas according to the state's Oil Mining Ordinance 1958.

“For a Sarawakian, to table an amendment to the PDA in Parliament is to throw away our original rights under the 1958 ordinance by recognising the PDA to supersede our own rights,” added Tiang.

“Adding to the insult, how can one Sarawakian MP ask the other 25 MPs from the state to join him in supporting his motion which only amounts to inviting them all to throw away our original rights?”

'Be positive, not negative'

Taing said the right thing to do was for all Sarawak representatives to join forces in the coming state assembly sitting to amend the Oil Mining Ordinance 1958 to further safeguard Sarawak's rights to the onshore and offshore mining of oil and gas.

“We Sarawakians support our Sarawak government’s strategy to gradually take control of oil and gas rights so as not to disrupt the present system into one of dysfunction, notwithstanding our conviction that the PDA and the Territorial Seas Act 2012 are unconstitutional.

“Our Sarawak government is putting in place our machinery such as Petros (the state's new oil agency) for active and productive participation. We urge all Sarawakians to be positive, not negative,” he said.

Yesterday, Chong had said he would be raising a motion in Parliament calling for an amendment to the Petroleum Development Act(PDA).

Chong said he wants the addition of the words “excluding Sarawak” to be annexed to Section 2 (1) of the PDA, after the word “Malaysia”.

He said only with this amendment can Sarawak lay claim to ownership and not just have regulatory rights to the state’s oil and gas reserves.