By DayakDaily Team
KUCHING, Aug 28: Former law minister Datuk Zaid Ibrahim has backed Senator Robert Lau’s proposal for a Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) into how over RM1 trillion in profits generated by Petroliam Nasional Berhad (PETRONAS) from Sarawak’s oil wealth were spent, but stressed that fairness and accountability must cut both ways, including investigation into Sarawak’s own leadership.
“Senator Robert Lau’s call for a Royal Commission on Petronas is timely. And I like that. He claims PETRONAS has generated over RM1 trillion in oil revenues from Sarawak’s resources. Yet Sarawak remains underdeveloped, with persistent rural poverty, weak infrastructure, and underserved indigenous communities. A Royal Commission should investigate how exactly PETRONAS spent these revenues,” he said in a post shared on his social media today.
But Zaid cautioned that accountability cannot end at PETRONAS, noting that Sarawak’s leaders must also be held responsible for decades of mismanagement and leakages despite receiving billions in federal aid and development funds.
“For decades, billions flowed to Sarawak for schools, rural roads, and clinics. Yet audits found leakages of up to 60 per cent in State projects. Where did the money go?” he asked.
Zaid pointed to the era of the late former chief minister Tun Pehin Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud, where he alleged that contracts were repeatedly awarded to a small circle of politically connected firms while allegations of vast family wealth accumulated abroad raised further questions.
He also highlighted that Sarawak’s lucrative timber and palm oil industries had long generated billions in revenue, yet many indigenous landowners saw their forests taken with little benefit trickling down, leaving poverty rates among rural communities stubbornly high.
“Even today, do we not still see politically linked firms dominating mega-road concessions and timber licences? What has changed?” Zaid asked.
The former minister also raised concerns over the State-owned oil company, Petroleum Sarawak Berhad (PETROS), and its expanding role in energy projects, stressing the need for transparency and oversight.
“Who scrutinises PETROS? Why are details of its contracts opaque? Who benefits from new energy ventures; ordinary Sarawakians, or a select political-business nexus?” he said.
Zaid said the RCI must therefore not only examine PETRONAS’ revenue management but also probe how Sarawak’s leaders managed federal allocations, natural resource wealth, and State-owned enterprises.
“At the heart of the Commission’s work must be a simple question: Why, despite trillions in oil wealth, are Sarawakians, especially rural and indigenous communities, still deprived?” he said.
Lau, in debating the 13th Malaysia Plan in the Dewan Negara on Tuesday (Aug 26), had called for a Royal Commission to investigate PETRONAS’ management of over RM1 trillion in profits derived from Sarawak’s oil and gas, saying the State has long sacrificed its resources for national development but remains one of the slowest-growing economies in Malaysia.
He argued that while PETRONAS is often portrayed as the “golden goose” that sustained the nation during economic crises, “the real goose is Sarawak, while PETRONAS merely collects the eggs”.
He said that the proposed RCI should recommend reforms to ensure greater transparency, fairness, and accountability in profit-sharing with oil-producing states such as Sarawak and Sabah. — DayakDaily
