Sarawak government confident in Sarawak vs Petronas case

By Lian Cheng

KUCHING, Jan 14: Cabinet ministers and many Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) leaders as well as their supporters turned up today at Kuching Court Complex to lend support to Sarawak in the Sarawak vs Petronas case.

Among the full ministers were Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas; Utilities Minister Datuk Seri Dr Stephen Rundi; Welfare, Community Wellbeing, Women, Family and Childhood Development Minister Datuk Seri Fatimah Abdullah and Tourism, Arts and Culture Minister Datuk Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah.

“We are here, of course, to give moral support. We are representing Sarawakians,” said Uggah to the media at Kuching Court Complex.

Today, there are three applications in session in relation to the case of Sarawak government suing Petronas over its unpaid 5 per cent State Sales Tax.

“There are three to four applications with one application to the judge, second on jurisdiction of the court as they want to transfer to the Federal Court, and some other objections.

“Our Order 14A, summary judgement for Sarawak (judicial review) which will be held later (afternoon). We cannot say much as we are waiting for the decision of the court,” said Assistant Minister in the Chief Minister’s Department (Law, State-Federal Relations and Project Monitoring) Datuk Sharifah Hasidah Sayeed Aman Ghazali.

She expressed confidence that Sarawak government would win the case against Petronas.

“Our hope is that the Sarawak government will win the case against Petronas. We are very confident, look at the supporters.”

She added that it would be normal for Petronas to object and she expected Petronas to “throw in all sorts of objections and applications but as the law is concerned, we are very strong. We believe we can win this case.”

Sharifah Hasidah was among the assistant ministers who were present which included Abdullah Saidol, Datuk Mohd Naroden Majais, Datuk Liwan Lagang, Datuk Sebastian Ting and Datuk Snowdan Lawan.