By Lian Cheng
KUCHING, Nov 21: Parti Bumi Kenyalang (PBK) president Voon Lee Shan opines that there is enough oil and gas in Sarawak to make all Sarawakians instant millionaires, in view of the state’s small population size relative to its large oil and gas reserves.
However, he said, since Sarawak joined to form Federation of Malaysia, Sarawak has remained backward and Sarawakians have become beggars as the state has to keep begging Putrajaya to disburse development funds.
“YAM Prime Minister (Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad) is aware that this illegal plundering of approximately 850,000 barrels of crude oil each day easily produces more than RM200,000,000 as revenue for the federal coffers.
“From oil alone, each day, Sarawak can produce about 2,000 millionaires but the people of Sarawak have been deprived of this right by the Federation of Malaysia as most of the income has gone to federal coffers to develop Malaya and enrich the Malayan ruling elites,” claimed Voon in a press conference at his office here today.
“Rather than let the money go to the federal (government), if the money is to be distributed among the 2.8 million Sarawakians, I think we can become millionaires within one month. But every day now, we are begging them to give us money. That is not right.”
He alleged the people of Sarawak are extremely aggrieved to see that their natural resources inclusive of oil and gas have been “illegally plundered” to benefit and develop Malayan states after the federal Parliament unconstitutionally enacted the Continental Shelf Act 1966, Petroleum Development Act 1974 and the Territorial Sea Act 2012.
“The people of Sarawak consider this as theft or robbery of Sarawak’s resources by the Federation of Malaya,” Voon said.
Voon also said, in response to the growing Sarawakian disenchantment with how Malaysia was formed and administered, he took the initiative on behalf of PBK on Sept 19, 2019, to write to the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, raising the issues and seeking advice and assistance concerning the plight of the people of Sarawak which the UK was responsible for by handing the state over to the federation.
“In my said letter, I also informed the Honourable Prime Minister of Great Britain that the people of Sarawak viewed that Great Britain should have given independence to Sarawak instead of handing the country over to the federation under the Malaysia Agreement 1963.”
“The people of Sarawak also consider that Great Britain still has an obligation to assist in setting Sarawak free and reinstate its independence according to its 1946 undertaking and United Nations General Assembly Regulation 1514,” said Voon. — DayakDaily
