By DayakDaily Team
KUCHING, Aug 29: Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu) Sarawak chairman Jaziri Alkaf Abdillah Suffian has urged Putrajaya to engage Sarawak in good faith over oil and gas matters, stressing that such an approach would safeguard PETRONAS’ global standing while at the same time honouring Sarawak’s constitutional rights.
He said the debate over Petroleum Sarawak Berhad’s (PETROS) role as sole gas aggregator should not be seen as political brinkmanship, but as part of a long-overdue struggle for economic justice.
“The federation’s strength lies not in one-sided centralisation, but in mutual respect and recognition of each region’s rights.
“If Kuala Lumpur can engage Sarawak in good faith, we can both protect PETRONAS’ global standing and at the same time honour Sarawak’s autonomy,” he said in a statement today.
Jaziri, who previously served as a Senator representing Sarawak in the Dewan Negara, said Sarawak’s demand should not be misinterpreted as a threat to the federation, but rather as part of Sarawak’s rightful struggle to reclaim what belongs to the State.
Elaborating further, he said Sarawak entered Malaysia in 1963 as an equal partner under the Malaysia Agreement (MA63) with control over its own resources and immigration.
He pointed out that the Petroleum Development Act (PDA) 1974, while a federal law, was enacted without the consent of the Sarawak legislature at the time, a fact that continues to be debated among constitutional scholars.
“To suggest that Sarawak’s exercise of resource management threatens the federation is to overlook decades of centralised revenue collection that have come at the expense of our own development and progress,” he stressed.
He underscored that what matters most is ensuring every Sarawakian, from the coastal areas to the highlands, benefits in real terms from the State’s natural resources, which he views as the true spirit of Malaysia that should be preserved. — DayakDaily
