If you are afraid of your own shadow, how will you face the substance that life is ready to offer you soon?
– Unknown
THE intense ‘letter writing campaign’ by disgruntled Malayans over the takeover of natural gas produced in Sarawak by Petroleum Sarawak Berhad (PETROS) has not escaped my attention.
Of late, there have been ghost-written letters, columns and recently an article of the same tune written by some big-name editor in Malaya, published by a national portal.
Not only does this campaign reek of anti-Sarawak sentiments but also displayed both their arrogance and ignorance of Sarawak rights.
In the article, the author went to great lengths to portray Sarawak as being the plunderer of the nation’s great wealth.
Mind you, this supposed great wealth was largely contributed by Sarawak. Sixty per cent of the gas reserves in Malaysia are in Sarawak waters.
All this while, the one who is enjoying the riches has been Malaya and Sarawak had to be content with only five per cent in oil and gas royalty.
This changed when the Sarawak government led by Premier Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Abang Johari Tun Openg imposed a five per cent State Sales Tax (SST) on petroleum products.
This allowed a more substantial return to Sarawak from its oil and gas resources and definitely boosted Sarawak’s finances, allowing it to undertake massive infrastructure transformation projects.
While it is no match to the skyscrapers and superhighways in Malaya, it is still something to abate the bitter taste in the mouth of Sarawakians deserving of so much more.
This brings us back to the very foundation of Malaysia. Tunku Abdul Rahman, when realising his grand vision of Malaysia, tried to persuade Sarawak and Sabah (then North Borneo) leaders to the idea of the federation.
Tunku invited the Borneo leaders to visit Malaya. This was when his deputy Tun Abdul Razak took them on a tour to witness the infrastructure development that happened in Malaya which impressed the leaders.
The Borneo leaders aspired for Sarawak and Sabah to have the same level of rural development, education standard and public facilities as Malaya.
This has not changed and as years went by, the development gap has only widened.
Sarawak is in the midst of playing catch-up and is doing fairly well for itself presently under Abang Johari but this has rubbed some people the wrong way.
‘Jealous’ is the word used by the Premier himself to describe the dissenters from Malaya, who obviously envy Sarawak’s success.
This anti-Sarawak campaign is an example of it, with hidden hands pulling the strings. It really makes you wonder what they are really afraid of.
I alluded in my previous column that those with special interests might lose their ‘golden goose’ with Sarawak being hard and fast with its rights to oil and gas.
But the worry now is that not only they are their losing their ‘golden goose’ but probably would be left stone broke with other states like Sabah closely monitoring Sarawak’s situation.
While Sabah leaders are reticent about its next move, they will succumb to public pressure by Sabahans to emulate whatever Sarawak is doing.
Regardless, we must remind ourselves that Sarawak is only claiming what rightly belongs to the state and nothing more.
The Sarawak government has authority over oil and gas resources under the Oil Mining Ordinance (OMO) 1958 which predates Malaysia’s formation.
Sarawak is operating within the legal parameters, a fact that is understood by Petroliam Nasional Berhad (PETRONAS), a partner to PETROS in the state’s oil and gas industry.
“As you know, there have been some reports, especially from Malaya, accusing Sarawak of taking PETRONAS’ business rights.
“We are not, instead, I assure you that the company and PETROS are partners in the oil and gas industry,” Abang Johari said on Thursday.
The Premier was of the view that some unscrupulous parties were trying to stir things up to prevent PETRONAS from collaborating with PETROS, this might be the case.
This big-name editor from Malaya cunningly tried to throw everything to the wall and see what sticks, alleging that Sarawak is blaming others for its own failures and that it is seeking to finish off the national oil company for a cash grab.
Not only that this is malicious, but it is a figment of the author’s imagination. It begs the question of what kind of journalism do they teach there?
The question that also needs answering is what is he really afraid of?
The views expressed here are those of the columnist and do not necessarily represent the views of New Sarawak Tribune.
