September 27,
2012
The Borneo states
of Sabah and Sarawak will have a better deal in the Pakatan Rakyat’s budget
2013 as it pledges that in the spirit of Kuching Declaration, it is committed
to fulfilling any and all obligations on the part of the federal government.
The Declaration
signed in Kuching recently affirms to honour the spirit of the Malaysia Agreement
of 1963, which among others seeks to restore Sabah, Sarawak and Malaya as equal
partners, fair representation in Parliament, citizenship, to restore native
customary rights over land, to appoint
locals to head federal government departments in the states, oil justice and equitable development.
“Pakatan Rakyat
shall honour the pledge to increase petroleum royalty to the oil producing states
to 20%. This is expected to bring additional RM12.5 billion to the states of
Kelantan, Sabah, Sarawak and Terengganu in the country so far.
“The
disbursement of the petroleum royalty will come with a strict transparency and
accountability procedure to ensure that every sen of the petroleum royalty goes
to the people,” the Pakatan coalition said.
It said:
“Pakatan Rakyat is critical of the favourable treatment given to well-connected
corporations such as SapuraKenchana in benefitting from risk-sharing contracts
(RCSs) for marginal fields when no similar effort was made to invest in the
future of the rakyat from the oil producing states.
“There are
enough skills, expertise and resources from the states to develop their own
second-tier oil and gas companies that can use the RSCs for the marginal fields
as a training ground before competing in the wider oil and gas market, not
unlike the experience of Petronas in its formative years.
“The legacy and benefit of oil and gas
resources inn the states can be harvested well beyond the expiry life of the
resources itself. The emergence of second-tier oil and gas companies owned by
the states retains the skills and expertise in the company that can eventually
compete elsewhere, even
when the
hydrocarbon resources are fully depleted in Malaysia,” the coalition said.
Pakatan Rakyat
will work with the state governments to establish state-owned second-tier oil
and gas companies for Sabah, Sarawak, Terengganu and Kelantan and other
oil-producing states to benefit the financial investments made into marginal
fields through risk-sharing contracts (RSCs).
In the budget,
the construction of the Pan-Borneo Highway will be given top priority by the
Pakatan Rakyat.
Under the
present BN government the disparity of road coverage in the peninsula against
Sabah and Sarawak is very glaring.
While the road
network has reached 35,734 km in the peninsula by 2009, the combined road
network in Sabah and Sarawak is only 10,171.
“Sabah and
Sarawak are in dire need of a massive upgrade of its road networks, especially
considering that its oil and gas resources have contributed largely to
indirectly funding the infrastructure development in the rest of the country.
“Pakatan Rakyat undertakes
to commence the design and construction of the Pan-Borneo Highway connecting
Kuching to Kota Kinabalu and east coast of Sabah as part of its promise to
bring development in Sabah and Sarawak to be at par with the rest of the
country.
“A Pakatan
Rakyat federal government will also undertake to assess the financial impact
and viability of upgrading and extending the rail networks in Sabah and Sarawak
which currently stands at 134 km.” It said.
