KUCHING, July 21: The federal government has been using Parliament to manipulate the rights of Sarawak and Sabah which are enshrined in the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63), said MA63 activist Zainnal Ajamain.
He claimed the federal government has been doing this since the early days and is still doing it because Sarawakians and Sabahans have not spoken out.
“They use Parliament to ‘rompak’ (rob) and why until now, are they doing the same thing? Because we are quiet. We are not speaking up. We are not making noise. We said ‘yes’. That is the problem,” said Zainnal during his sharing session at a hotel here today.
Zainnal has been actively advocating for Sarawak and Sabah’s rights, even writing two books on the topic — “The Queen’s Obligation: Malaysia’s Forgotten History by Design?” and “The Grand Design”.
Both books detail the rights of Sarawak and Sabah and how these rights have been eroded after the two territories joined Malaya and Singapore (which was later expelled) to form the Federation of Malaysia in 1963.
He said the federal government has been frightening Sarawak and Sabah, through the declaration of Emergency and the Internal Security Act.
“They are bluffing. They are bluffing with us. They are frightening us. And we retreat. So they devour and they don’t devour just a bit.
“For Sarawak alone, it was RM100 billion per year and for Sabah, RM90 billion,” claimed Zainnal, when explaining how the federal government used Parliament to reduce Sarawak’s continental shelf to only three nautical miles, instead of 350 miles from the benchmark, as stated under the Queen’s Sarawak (Alteration of Boundaries) Order in Council 1954,
He said another factor that led to long-term bullying from the federal government was because elected representatives from Sarawak and Sabah, be they parliamentarians or assemblymen, were ignorant of their rights.
“To be honest, no YBs, MPs or assemblymen know about this (the rights of Sarawak and Sabah). This is our problem.”
“That is why I was so disappointed the day before when (Tun Dr) Mahathir (Mohamad) talked about (oil and gas) royalties. There were no MPs who interjected.”
He said when there were petty issues, there were so many MPs interjecting and joining the argument, but when it was a serious case like oil and gas royalties for Sarawak and Sabah, no one interjected to ask for an explanation.
Zainnal said he identified 54 breaches of MA63 and if MA63 is breached, there would be no Malaysia.
On the hot topic of oil and gas royalties which Dr Mahathir said was based on 20 per cent profit, Zainnal opined it could mean zero sum for Sarawak as Petronas is a company which could declare it did not make any profit.
Playing the devil’s advocate, he also pointed out in the Petroleum Development Act 1974 (PDA 1974), the maximum stated was 10 per cent. If the Pakatan Harapan government was serious about giving 20 per cent royalties to oil producing states, it would require amending the PDA 1974, he said.
He also questioned why Petronas has been paying dividends to the federal government when most of the oil and gas is found in Sarawak and Sabah. — DayakDaily
