Voon Lee Shan, president of Parti Bumi Kenyalang, said the Gabungan Parti Sarawak coalition, as the government of the day, should also move for repeal “instead of shouting from the sidelines” over the state’s rights to exploit oil and gas reserves.
Voon’s call came a day after Sarawak DAP chief Chong Chieng Jen was challenged to file a suit to challenge the validity of the law, in order to retain Sarawak’s rights to exploit oil and gas reserves.
Hilary Lim of SUPP, a partner in the GPS coalition, had urged Sarawak DAP to take up a court case to test the law, instead of merely issuing statements in support of Sarawak’s rights.
However, Voon said a court challenge was politically and economically sensitive, and judges were unlikely to rule against the government.
He said Parliament was the only avenue “to clean up the mess with never-ending politicking around the matter”, as the law was passed by the federal legislature and should be repealed by it so that Sabah and Sarawak would regain their rights over oil and gas resources.
“As DAP and PKR are allies in Pakatan Harapan, and form the backbone of the Madani government, they should seek to repeal the law,” Voon said in a statement today, Dayak Daily reported. He said SUPP and the other parties in GPS should take action and “not shout from the sidelines”.
The Petroleum Development Act, passed by Parliament in 1974, vests Petronas with the exclusive rights to exploit petroleum reserves on land and offshore and to carry out downstream activities.
The Sarawak government has contended that it retains the rights over oil and gas reserves under a pre-independence Oil Mining Ordinance, which predates the Act. Sarawak has also imposed sales tax on Petronas for its activities in the state.
However, last month, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said the federal government and Sarawak had recognised the act as a federal law, and agreed that Petronas and its subsidiaries retained all its existing contractual obligations.
The following day, Sarawak premier Abang Johari Openg said the state also intended to pursue its right to explore for gas in areas off its coast and in the continental shelf.