Petroleum Sarawak Berhad (Petros) was set up to ensure the state obtains a fair and transparent share of its own resources, a Bersatu leader said in rubbishing claims the firm would undermine Petronas.
Jaziri Alkaf Abdillah Suffian said the claim by a former federal minister overlooks Sarawak’s intent in managing its own resources, The Borneo Post reported.
“Petros’s role is not about crippling Petronas’s competitiveness.
“It is about ensuring that Sarawak gains a direct, transparent and equitable share of the wealth generated from our own shores,” the Bersatu Sarawak chairman was quoted as saying.
Jaziri was responding to Zaid Ibrahim, who was reported to have said that Petros – Sarawak’s sole gas aggregator – should not be entrusted with a role in gas development on grounds it would undermine Petronas.
Zaid, who was the law minister in 2008, said if Petros was entrusted with such a role, it would weaken commercial competitiveness, and threaten the federal structure of the nation.
Jaziri said Sarawak’s push for greater control over its oil and gas was not political brinkmanship, but a matter of economic justice.
He said Sarawak had agreed to form Malaysia in 1963 as an equal partner with control over its own resources and immigration, and that the Petroleum Development Act 1974 had been enacted without the consent of the Sarawak legislature.
“To suggest that Sarawak’s exercise of resource management equates to threatening the federation is, in my view, to overlook decades of revenue centralisation that have come at the expense of our own development and progress,” he said.
Earlier today, the youth chairman of the Sarawak United People’s Party, Kevin Lau, said Zaid’s remarks reflected his lack of understanding of Sarawakians’ sentiments and ignored the spirit of the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63), which recognises Sarawak’s rights over its own resources.
Lau said the claim that Petros would weaken Petronas was “misleading”.
He said the establishment of Petros was necessary not only to protect Sarawak’s rightful authority over its resources, but to ensure equitable distribution for the benefit of local industries and the power sector.
