KUCHING, May 16: Parti Bumi Kenyalang (PBK) president Voon Lee Shan has called for the state’s veteran politicians to shed light on the ownership status of the Sarawak’s oil and gas reserves.
Referring to videos circulated in the social media concerning the surrender of Sarawak’s oil and gas reserves to the federal government, he said members of the public had urged PBK to call for the senior politicians, especially those from Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB) to throw light about these controversies
Voon, in a statement today, said in one of the videos that was circulated recently, Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah was said to have mentioned that it was the idea of Abdul Rahman Yakub when he was the Chief Minister of Sarawak, who proposed the setting up of Petronas.
Abdul Rahman Yakub was also said to have proposed the five per cent as cash payment of all oil proceeds accrued to Petronas, including to surrender the oil resources to the federal government.
According to Voon, Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah also mentioned that Abdul Rahman Yakub had discussed the matter with his cabinet ministers who agreed to surrender Sarawak’s petroleum to the federal government.
“Members of the public had urged PBK to call for the senior politicians, especially those from PBB to throw light to the public about these controversies to clear the name of the defenseless Abdul Rahman Yakub.
“Perhaps, Tun Pehin Sri Abdul Taib Mahumd (former chief minister) and Tan Sr Alfred Jabu Numpang (former deputy chief minister) should come forward to throw light about this matter for knowledge of the public as they both were in the politics in 1960s until their retirement recently and it was a known fact that both were very close to Abdul Rahman Yakub,” he said.
Voon also pointed that Sarawak has lost its oil and gas resources under the the Section 2(1) Petroleum Development Act 1974, which states that “The entire ownership in, and the exclusive rights, powers and liberties and privileges of exploring, exploiting winning ad obtaining petroleum whether onshore or offshore of Malaysia shall be vested in the Corporation…”
He explained that the Corporation here is Petronas, and all petroleum was now vested in Petronas, which has full ownership.
“Therefore, Sarawak is left with not a single drop of oil anymore. A document circulated around seems to show that Abdul Rahman Yakub signed off all Sarawak’s petroleum in perpetuity to Petronas on March 27, 1975,” he added. -DayakDaily.
