KUCHING, May 17: Parti Aspirasi Rakyat Sarawak (Aspirasi) president Lina Soo has urged the state’s lawmakers to pass a motion in the State Legislative Assembly (DUN) to reject and repudiate the Petroleum Development Act (PDA) 144 and (TSA) 750.
She said these two federal laws has violated Sarawak’s territorial integrity and was not approved in DUN.
“This constitutional safeguard by DUN must first be put in place to protect and lock in the state’s inheritance and territorial sovereignty. otherwise by keeping silence for over 44 years, Sarawak shall be deemed to have consented in acquiescence should the matter of ownership go to court.
“If the Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS)’s lawmakers decline to do it, Pakatan lawmakers in the opposition should be able to introduce the bill now. Otherwise, all lawmakers on both sides are merely politicking and taking Sarawak voters for a ride,” she said in a statement here today.
Soo also noted that two Democratic Action Party (DAP), namely Chiew Chiu Sing and Irene Mary Chang Oi Ling, and an opposition lawmaker See Chee How, in their media statement yesterday had urged the DUN Speaker Datuk Amar Mohd Asfia Awang Nassar to deliberate on the matters pertaining to the negotiation, dealing and arrangement between Sarawak government and Petronas.
This is to safeguard the state’s sovereign rights and interests to oil and gas within the territory of Sarawak.
According to Soo, when the three assemblyman in their respective parties were part of the Federal government then, they failed to safeguard Sarawak’s oil and gas interests by saying and doing nothing when Petronas under the Pakatan Harapan (PH) government refused to pay up the five per cent petroleum sales tax imposed by Sarawak.
She also reminded the three lawmakers that Petronas is under the purview of the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) under former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and they were in a position then as part of the Federal Government for 22 months to influence the government to respect Sarawak’s laws.
“The mandate to form the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63) Consultative Committee was made on November 6, 2018, and it had taken them one and a half years when they to fell from power before they thought to remind the DUN Speaker to activate the MA63 Consultative Committee.
“To the best of my knowledge, I has not seen any report, and I wonder why as part of the Committee they chose to ‘sleep’ and only awaken from their slumber upon change of regime.
“It seems they do a better job of protecting Sarawak’s oil and gas rights when they are in the opposition,” said Soo, hoping that they would do a better job of protecting Sarawak’s interests from now on, as it was better late than never.
On another note, she also called for a clarification on the media statement made by the Deputy DUN Speaker Datuk Gerawat Gala, which was published on his Facebook account on May 15, titled ‘ Joint Media Statement Not a Final Agreement’.
According to her, Gerawat in his statement quoted that “Sarawak agreed to reaffirm Petronas sole rights to oil and gas under PDA and the Petroleum Agreements under which Sarawak has been paid an annual five per cent royalty/cash payment from Petronas”.
“Deputy Speaker should clarify his statement as this is tantamount to validating the PDA and surrendering our oil and gas to Petronas.
“This means Sarawak sovereignty over our oil and gas resources has been compromised, and puts Sarawak ownership over our inheritance in grave jeopardy,” she added. -DayakDaily.
