KUCHING, May 4: Sarawak People’s Aspiration Party (ASPIRASI) president Lina Soo finds it ludicrous that the donation of seven ICU beds to Sarawak could in any way exonerate Petronas from its failed obligations and fiduciary duties to the people of Sarawak.
Petronaos is ranked among Fortune Global 500’s largest corporations in the world as the 158th largest company in 2019. She believed that Petronas could not have attained this ranking without Sarawak’s oil and gas resources.
“The seven ICU beds were a donation to Sarawak hospitals programme announced as Petronas’ caring response to the health crisis facing Sarawak under its corporate social responsibility (CSR) programme.
“After milking Sarawak of its oil and gas for the last 44 years in the trillions, Petronas has demonstrated how apathetic and callous is its attitude towards the people of Sarawak who are now suffering economic hardship from the coronavirus pandemic.” said Soo in a statement today.
She asserted that Petronas has been used like an ATM cash machine for the government’s failed economic policies and to bail out colossal financial fiascos and cited forex losses, Bank Bumiputra, MAS (Malaysia Airline), Proton Holdings as examples.
Apart from that, Soo said Petronas burnt at least RM200 million a year as an F1 sponsorship.
Soo added KL twin towers and Putrajaya to the list, pointing out that the two world renounced towers were built and maintained with oil money.
“Petronas invested billions and billions building pipelines and gas terminals in Canada with zero LNG (liquified natural gas) production to show up to today. Petronas lasted six years in Indonesia before calling it a day. The list is endless,” said Soo.
She thus concluded that what Sarawak needs are not seven ICU but Petronas to pay up the five per cent sales tax its owes to the State.
“We don’t need seven ICU beds, but we need Petronas to pay up the five per cent Sarawak petroleum sales tax for 2019 without further delay,” said Soo. — DayakDaily
