KUCHING, March 4: The Sarawak Initiatives (TSI) will hold a webinar on how Sarawak could move forward with the Petroleum Development Act (PDA) 1974.
In a statement today, TSI said the webinar, entitled “How to move forward on the Petroleum Development Act 1974”, will be delivered by veteran lawyer Alex Ling and scheduled to take place at 2.30pm on March 12 via Zoom.
“The talk will explore the Act’s inception, its relevancy, and the current laws that should be rectified, especially in the distribution of oil royalties from the sales of crude oil and gases from the coastal shores of Sarawak and Sabah to the federal government.
“It will also look into the appropriate amendments of the acts through fair, amicable, and diplomatic negotiations with all relevant parties about the issue.
“The Act has entrusted Petronas the entire ownership in, and the exclusive rights, powers, liberties and privileges of exploring, exploiting, winning and obtaining petroleum whether onshore or offshore of Malaysia,” it said.
Meanwhile, Ling said the rights of Sarawak and Sabah, which have dominions over their oil and gas with exclusive rights to issue licences, need to be restored by making PDA 1974 inapplicable to the Borneo Territories as the federal government has only imperium powers of supervision.
“PDA 1974, Territorial Sea Act (TSA) 2012, and Act A354 (1976) had seriously breached the seven entrenched provisions of the Federal Constitution, especially Article 2(b) on the void alterations of the boundaries of the 360 nautical miles of Continental Shelf.
“This includes 200 nautical miles of EEZ (exclusive economic zone) and 12 nautical miles of the territorial waters of the Borneo States, reconfirmed by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea apart from the seven protective municipal laws,” he said about the TSA 2012.
Ling, a law graduate, attended the Methodist Primary School in Sibu, Millfield School Somerset in England, and St Joseph’s School, Kuching, before going to the University of Cambridge in 1965.
After that, he did his postgraduate degree majoring in tax, corporate law, constitutional law, public and private International Laws.
The veteran lawyer was called to the Bar in 1970 in Lincoln’s Inn and had worked in Yong and Wong before he joined Rodyk & Davidson and David Marshall’s legal firm in Singapore.
He has held a few directorship positions in the banking sector. He was also the director of LBS Timber Group in Malaysia and Indonesia from 1971 to 2000 and was also involved in businesses in the mining sector with significant investments in natural resources such as oil, gas, and coal.
He has also published a series of articles on the Malaysia Act 1963 (MA63) and oil and gas issues in the local media.
Those interested in attending the online talk can visit TSI’s website at www.thesarawakinitiatives.org or contact the organisation at 019-8767928. ― DayakDaily
