Anwar Pushes Amendments To Guarantee Oil Royalties

From The Malaysian Insider
By Leslie Lau

Sila lihat juga Laman Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah

KUALA LUMPUR , Dec 1 — Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim (picture) has given notice in Parliament of an attempt to table a private member’s bill to amend the Petroleum Development Act (PDA) 1974 to guarantee oil producing states revenue from oil royalties from the federal government.

The proposed changes to the law are not likely to be debated in Parliament because the government does not customarily allow the opposition to table law, and will move to block such an attempt.

But the Opposition Leader appears to be using his proposed amendments to apply further pressure on Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s administration to deal with the flap over oil royalties.

Anwar’s amendments seeks to define in clear terms what is meant by “offshore,” which is a crucial element in the current dispute between Putrajaya and the PAS-led Kelantan state government.

Pakatan Rakyat (PR) lawmakers are demanding that oil royalties be made to Kelantan but Najib has only promised “goodwill payment” through federal government projects.

The Barisan Nasional (BN) government’s attitude is different for states held by the federal ruling coalition such as Sarawak, where oil royalties are paid directly to the state.

Anwar is now seeking through the private members bill to define “offshore” as referring to a portion of area in the open sea that falls within the limit of the Exclusive Economic Zone.

He claims that that the three nautical miles boundary only came to the picture by way of inference due to the ambiguity in the definition of the word “offshore”.

The BN government, he claimed, was using the definition of “territorial waters” contained in the Energency Ordinance Act 1969.

Najib has said that Kelantan was not entitled to royalty as the oil is extracted beyond state waters or beyond three nautical miles from the shore.

This argument was again used as the government’s defence in not giving Kelantan royalty by the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Nazri Aziz when pressed by the opposition in Parliament last week.

Anwar had also recently invited founding chairman of national oil company Petronas Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah to join a bilateral parliamentary caucus to make amendments to the PDA and ensure relevant state administrations receive oil royalty.

Tengku Razaleigh’s involvement in the opposition campaign to get oil royalty for Kelantan formally started last Wednesday when he said that the state had the right to receive profit from its oil.

The former finance minister was involved in the drafting of the law and the opposition has argued that the law was drafted to ensure that oil-producing states receive a five per cent royalty.

Tengku Razaleigh has said that it was Kelantan’s “constitutional right” to receive Kelantan, which is under PAS control, will instead receive “goodwill payment” for its oil.

Tengku Razaleigh said yesterday that the Najib administration’s refusal to pay the fee to Kelantan has cast serious doubt on the Putrajaya’s “respect for the sanctity of contracts and the rule of law” and has implications beyond just that state.

“Let’s not talk about attracting FDI and increasing domestic investment to take our economy to a higher level when we do not respect our basic obligations,” the Kelantan prince wrote in his weblog yesterday.

This is the second such criticism that the government has reneged on its agreements, the first being for its 20-year-long refusal to allow Communist Party of Malaya chief Chin Peng from returning home under the Hatyai peace accord signed on Dec 2, 1989. The 85-year-old has sued to return home but the courts have ruled against him while the government said it can’t forgive him for his war against the state that killed thousands.

The DAP has criticised the ruling Barisan Nasional for the Chin Peng snub, while its Pakatan Rakyat ally, PAS which has ruled Kelantan since 1990, has asked the Gua Musang MP to head a caucus to press for Kelantan to get the oil royalty for oil and gas extracted off its shores. Tengku Razaleigh has yet to decide but his party leaders have cautioned him against doing so.