Jake Nointin (third left), Arthur Sen (second left), Arthur Kurup (fourth left) and members of three youth wings showing solidarity after the press conference.
PENAMPANG: The youth wings of three Kadazandusun-based Barisan Nasional (BN) component parties have banded together in pursuit of their common goal to lobby for an immediate review of the State oil royalty.
While opposition leaders have been extremely vocal in demanding for the increase, especially in the run-up to the last general election where they included the issue as the main agenda in their manifesto, the BN component parties in the State have always been more subtle and cautious in their approach.
That ended yesterday when youth executive committees from Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS), United Pasokmomogun Kadazandusun Murut Organization (UPKO) and Parti Bersatu Rakyat Sabah (PBRS) issued a strong statement demanding for the current five per cent royalty to be immediately increased to 20 per cent.
“We believe that, together, Sabah and Sarawak could have a louder voice in the matter. We need to start somewhere and it so happened that the three of us are good friends. So, why not we start the ball rolling,” said PBS Youth chief Datuk Jake Nointin, when asked about the sudden change of tone in their call.
Speaking in a joint press conference with UPKO Youth chief Arthur Sen and PBRS youth chief Arthur Kurup, he said they made the call in support of a recent demand for the same review by the Chief Minister of Sarawak, adding that the three Youth movements decided to come together as one voice to further strengthen the calls that have long been made by their respective parties.
Reading out a joint statement issued during the press conference, he said the call for higher royalty was justified given that Sabah and Sarawak were very much lagging behind in terms of development and in need of much bigger allocations to improve their basic infrastructure.
“The scenario has changed over the last 50 years, where we Sabah and Sarawak are now the biggest oil producer in Malaysia that significantly contribute towards the country’s development.
“At the same time, infrastructure development in these two massive states is not on par with that in Peninsular Malaysia. As such, it is appropriate for us to be given more than the five per cent we are getting now for developing our states, in line with the spirit of solidarity and understanding that the partners of Malaysia have practised all this while,” he said.
He said in order for the royalty to be increased, related laws must first be amended, but this may take a lengthy process and negotiations with the parties concerned.
In this regards, he said the group suggested for a temporary solution to be adopted, by having the five per cent royalty given to the Federal Government redirected to the state government, in addition to the five per cent already paid to Sabah.
“This will increase the royalty received by the State to 10 per cent and this can be done without amending the Petroleum Act. This will immediately give Sabah additional funds for its development,” explained Sen.
The group also demanded for more key positions in the oil and gas industry, particularly for positions on the board of directors of Petronas to be given to Sabahans and Sarawakians.
On a separate issue, they also called for a Parliamentary Select Committee to be set up to assess the implementation of the Malaysia Agreement 1963 and the 18/20 Points Memorandum.
Among the issues the committee should look into, they said, included the Borneonisation of the civil services in Sabah and Sarawak and the allocation of seats for each member of the Federation of Malaysia in parliament.
“We suggest the committee members be appointed from among the government and opposition parliamentarians from Sabah and Sarawak as well as from Peninsular Malaysia. Their findings shall be presented in the parliament together with recommendations in regards to seat allocation, in line with the spirit of the Cobbold Report.
“Currently, the seat for Sabah and Sarawak combined represents less than 25 per cent of the Parliament, and this is not in line with the Malaysia Agreement and the Federal Constitution, which stated that the seat proportion for Sabah and Sarawak must be similar but not less than the initial quota allocated.
“During the first Parliament sitting the proportion was about 35 per cent for Sabah and Sarawak and this is what we are calling for. This is one of our strongest claims because it is supported with legal and historical documents. We are not making this up, we are only asking what is rightfully ours,” said Kurup.
The group also demanded for the federal government to include ‘Sabah Native’ and ‘Sarawak Native’ for all ethnic categorization in its official forms, instead of just using ‘Malay’, ‘Chinese’, ‘Indian’ and ‘Others’.