Ku Li: "We demand what is rightfully ours"

By Anil Netto,

Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah has thrown his weight behind Kelantan’s claim for oil royalties in an address to a capacity crowd at the Kota Bharu stadium tonight.

“Extraordinary. The stadium is packed. Bleachers full, field full,” marvelled Ku Li. - Photo courtesy of N51pasirpanjang.blogspot.com

“The oil royalty is not about the federal government’s charity payments but the sovereign rights of the states within our Federation,” he said. “I stand here representing only myself. I am here upon principle.”

“One evening Tun Razak called me and asked me to form a body to manage this oil for the benefit of the people,” he recalled.

Razaleigh went on to describe how Shell was brought to the negotiating table using the controlling share provision. “The formula I agreed with Rahman Ya’kub was generalised to all the other states.”

“If Sarawak is due her 5 per cent royalty, no less is Kelantan, by the same principle.”

“How are we to ask investors to have confidence in us if we can’t even keep contracts between ouselves!” he asked.

“The oil caucus I will lead is not just about oil. It is to re-examine the relationship between the states and the federal government.”

“Kelantan may be poor. But we are not beggars. We demand what is rightfully OURS,” he insisted.

Batu MP Tian Chua later twittered: “Congrats to Tengku Razaleigh: successful gathering in Kelantan! People are eagerly waiting to see you joining the wagon for change.”

Earlier Razaleigh had written in his blog:

The larger issue is State rights. Malaysia is a Federation of sovereign states. The Federal government has no rights over any petroleum resources except where these have been assigned to the Federal Government by the respective state governments. The novel mechanism we created for this assignment was Petronas.

The states vested all their rights in their petroleum resources in perpetuity to this entity incorporated under the Companies Act. In return Petronas bound itself to pay the respective state 5% of the profit oil from any oil found on or offshore of the state. I signed those undertakings with the Menteri Besar of each of the states.

Part of the vesting deed between the Kelantan Government and Petronas signed in 1975 – Courtesy razaleigh.com