Dompok shocked at Musa's unwillingness to push for royalty rise

By Dominic Legeh - Free Malaysia Today

KOTA KINABALU: Minister of Plantation Industries and Commodities Bernard Dompok is dismayed that the Sabah government is averse to asking the federal government to increase the payment of oil royalty to the state.

Dompok, who is also United Pasok Momogun Kadazandusun Murut Organisation (UPKO) president, said he is at a loss as to why Chief Minister Musa Aman is unwilling to raise the matter with Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak.

"It is already a public knowledge we had an occasion to discuss this (increase of the oil royalty from the current 5 percent) with (former prime minister) Abdullah (Badawi).

"We communicate with him and told him how UPKO felt about it...our feeling was that the state can ask for an increase (in the oil royalty)."

"In fact we have said so and we have told the federal government our view that the state can ask for an increase in oil royalty."

But Dompok however was guarded when asked about Musa's stand that the federal government had been generous with funds for Sabah in the past as such it was not important to ask for an increase in the royalty for the state.

Known as one of the few Sabah BN leaders who is unafraid to speak his mind when it comes to protecting the state's rights, all Dompok would said was: "Well, that's always what they said, but I think that, since you are asking me, that is what I feel about it."

"It's not for me to tell what Sabah should do now. I am just saying my personal feeling is that Sabah can request for an increase in oil royalty," he said.

He declined to say whether the the state BN component parties should sit down and discuss about it.

"As far as I am concerned, our views with regards to the oil royalty is still on record even though no attempt or action has been taken since our last communication with Abdullah.

"The state cabinet is represented by various component parties of the Barisan Nasional and I think the individual parties have their own stand on the issue and feelings on the issue."

He refused to be drawn into any debate about whether any other BN component parties in Sabah had brought up the matter with Najib or his predecessor Abdullah.

"We communicated our feelings to the then Prime Minister Abdullah," was all he would say.

He said that UPKO could propose that the matter be discussed at state level during a BN Sabah meeting but tempered his statement by adding: "We already have a functioning cabinet in the state which is composed of all the component parties in the Barisan Nasional (to deal with the issue).

On the call by opposition parties to re-open the investigations into the air crash that killed former chief minister Fuad Stephens and several of his cabinet colleagues on June 6, 1976, Dompok said the party would like to respect the wishes of the families (of those involved in the tragedy).

On Thursday, Moyog Assemblyman and UPKO member Donald Peter Mojuntin said his family was not in favour of re-visiting the tragedy that killed his father Peter Mojuntin and 10 others when their Nomad air crashed on its approach to land at the Kota Kinabalu airport.

"Will a re-investigation of the tragedy bring back any of the victims to their respective families? The families of the victims have gone through years of heartache and sorrow, years of uncertainty, years of trying to figure out who was responsible for their sudden loss, not to mention years of trying to find a closure, so that they can get on with their respective lives.

"I hope those asking for a re-opening of the case realise this."

He was commenting on opposition Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) president Yong Teck Lee and PKR chief for Sabah and Sarawak Jeffrey Kitingan's call for the investigation file on the crash to be reopened to remove all doubts about the true causes.

Yong and Kitingan had said Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah's first hand account of how he was seated behind Stephens in the aircraft but left it just before it was due to take off on the invitation of Harris Salleh was new evidence that should be examined.

Razaleigh, a former Petronas chairman cum Finance Minister revealed this during a talk, “Minyak Sabah Untuk Siapa" (Sabah’s Oil for Whom?) at the Hongkod Koisaan two weeks ago.

He said that he is alive because he decided to accept the invitation by then Deputy Chief Minister Harris to visit a cattle project in Banggi island, with the intention of returning to the State Capital in the evening to sign the petroleum royalty agreement with the state government.

Razaleigh said he was seated behind Stephens and decided to extend the invitation to Sarawak CM Patinggi Tun Rahman Yakub and another person from Pahang.

Dompok was speaking after officiating the final of the Kadazandusun and Murut Song Composition Contest, in conjunction with the Father's and Mother's Day celebrations, late Friday evening.