KUCHING, March 31: The Petroleum Development Act 1974 (PDA74) is in breach of the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63) and the Federal Constitution and therefore is null and void, claims Parti Bumi Kenyalang (PBK) president Voon Lee Shan.
According to Voon, State Legislative Assembly (DUN) Speaker Datuk Amar Mohamad Asfia Awang Nassar in October 2019 had said that PDA74 was invalid after the Emergency was in 2011.
“In which he meant that PDA74 now is ‘reductio ad absurdum’ (reduction to absurdity). Although PDA74 is said to be reduced to absurdity but this does not mean that the Act is repealed.
“PDA74 should not be left hanging to create uncertainty concerning the ownership of oil and gas resources,” he said in a statement today.
Voon added so far that there has been no attempt by Parliament to repeal PDA74, the Continental Shelf Act 1966 and Territorial Seas Act (TSA) 2012 that took Sarawak oil and gas away.
“Nor was there any attempt by the Sarawak Legislature to not recognise these Acts. All these three Acts should be repealed,” he said.
According to Voon, some years ago DUN passed a resolution calling for 20 per cent oil royalty which has also not been fulfilled.
“Why doesn’t the Sarawak government under Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) want to get 100 per cent of her oil and gas back but 20 per cent only and yet this had not been fulfilled until today?
“This is a great loss to Sarawak. Sarawak should not allow Malaya to control and share her resources,” he said.
“We should not allow our wealth to be used to benefit others and to allow this wealth to be used to develop Malaya and pay Malaysia’s national debt of RM979.8 billion as of the end of last December 2021 as disclosed in Parliament,” he said. — DayakDaily
