Malaysia: Sabah sticks to 20% oil royalty demand

• SHAFIE Apdal said Sabah will continue pursuing the 20% oil royalty demand and has taken note of federal government’s reasoning that the matter will take time.
• The chief minister said Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad was informed of the state cabinet’s decision when both men met at a private lunch on 15 Sep 18.
• Dr Mahathir vowed that Pakatan Harapan will keep its election manifesto to honour the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63) and raise oil royalties for all oil-producing states from 5% to 20%. However, he noted that the work to realise all these promises will take time.
• Sabah accounts for 50% of the country’s oil production output, while 5% of Petronas’ gross output goes back to the state.
• Shafie said Sabah could receive up to six-fold from the existing royalty payments which come to about MYR1bn a year. “For Putrajaya, what is MYR6bn-MYR7bn compared to when former prime minister Najib Razak announced the MYR55bn rail project?”
• Deputy Prime Minister Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail has added that PM Mahathir’s offer to restore the status of Sabah and Sarawak as equal partners in the federation is not an empty promise.
• Yet Sarawakian are bemused by Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s promise on 16 Sep 18 to accord equal status to Sabah and Sarawak after the study on the Malaysia Agreement 1963 is done.
• “This so-called study, by Tun M (Mahathir), is just a decoy to delay the process (of returning the eroded rights and autonomy enshrined in the agreement),” Deputy Chief Minister James Masing said.
• Masing said there was no necessity for another study on MA63, which established the formation of Malaysia as a federation, as it was a United Nations chartered agreement (which could not be altered or amended by the federal constitution or parliament).
• He said all Putrajaya has to do is to get the remaining three signatories of the agreement – Peninsular Malaysia (then known as Malaya), Sarawak and Sabah – to conduct an audit on the agreement.

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