KUCHING, July 15: Assistant Minister in Chief Minister’s Office Abdullah Saidol believes that the resignation of Batu Lintang assemblyman See Chee How from Sarawak State Legislative Assembly (DUN) Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63) Consultative Committee is due to the latter’s own political conflict.
To Abdullah, it was unfortunate that See chose to resign for no valid reason.
“If YB See seriously cares about protecting Sarawak’s rights and interests, he should have remained in the committee to ensure all relevant matters brought before the committee will be compressive or thoroughly deliberated.
“Bearing in mind that this committee was unanimously endorsed by the State Legislative. Therefore, this committee and the locus standi of its members including YB See are legitimate and answerable to the State Legislative Assembly.
“If YB See deems any matters relating to the process of the negotiation are not correct or vague, then he being a member of the committee has all the legitimate right to raise his concerns and put his reservation on record. And if deemed appropriate and necessary, he may even raise such concerns during DUN sitting.
“I can only assumed that his resignation has nothing to do with the process or substance of the negotiation with the Federal Government but due to his own political conflict.
“Perhaps he is aware that GPS (Gabungan Parti Sarawak) state Government is on the right track and will produce favourable results for Sarawak and he is trying to avoid acknowledging such effort,” said Abdullah in a press statement today.
See resigned yesterday (July 14) from DUN Consultative Committee in protest over Sarawak government’s negotiation with Petronas over SST without consulting the committee.
Abdullah who is also Corporate Affairs Assistant Minister agreed with Assistant Law, State-Federal Relations and Project Monitoring Assistant Minister Datuk Sharifah Hasidah Sayeed Aman Ghazali that See had made the wrong assumption on the recent negotiations between Sarawak and Petronas.
In response to See’s accusation, Sharifah explained in her social media posting the recent negotiation between the Sarawak government and Petronas was about Sarawak’s participation in oil and gas commercially and not over State Sales Tax (SST) payment on petroleum and petroleum products, which is under the purview of DUN Consultation Committee.
On oil and gas issue, Sarawak has two committees – DUN Consultative Committee which is to look into the payment of SST and Sarawak’s rights; while there is another committee headed by Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Amar Awang Tengah Ali Hasan whose task is to negotiate with the federal government and Petronas on how best Sarawak could participate in the oil and gas industry.
Recently, Awang Tengah did hold a meeting with Petronas but DUN Consultation Committee, since the appointment of See, had not met.
Meanwhile, Abdullah took the opportunity to challenge See who had accused the Sarawak government of lacking transparency in the oil and gas issues to divulge the reasons the federal government cancelled numerous projects during the time when Pakatan Harapan (PH) was in power and the See was appointed a special officer to a full minister.
“For the record, YB See was appointed as Special Officer of a federal minister during PH administration for 22 months.
“He together with another Sarawakian who is Sarawak PH Chief and a federal Deputy Minister were part of the Federal MA63 Steering and Technical Committee chaired by previous prime minister.
“What result did they contributed when they were strongly positioned during PH administration?
“If he wishes to talk about transparency, he should explain to all Sarawkian why he being the Special Officer to the previous Minister of Works have cancelled many federal approved projects for Sarawak and how much have they done for Sarawak during PH administration,” said Abdullah.—DayakDaily
