Robert Lau of the Sarawak United Peoples’ Party questioned whether Mahathir would have held the same stand when the state handed over its oil and gas rights in 1976.
“Did this principle apply when then-Sarawak chief minister Abdul Rahman Yakub was pressured into signing a one-page letter in June 1976, effectively surrendering the state’s oil and gas rights to Petronas?” Lau said, according to The Borneo Post.
He said the finance minister at the time, Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, was tasked with securing the signatures from the leaders of Sarawak and Sabah, offering a mere 5% royalty in return.
“This letter was never tabled in Parliament, and neither was it presented to the Sarawak legislative assembly or even approved by the Sarawak Cabinet,” Lau said.
Lau asked whether Mahathir would agree that the letter was illegitimate since it did not go through Parliament.
He also dismissed the former prime minister’s argument that Sarawak had gained substantially from being a part of Malaysia, and that it used to be a “very poor” state after “the British took all their money”.
Lau said the British colonial administration extracted wealth from Malaya, as Sarawak was not made a British colony until 1946. The state’s oil and gas resources had yet to be meaningfully developed at that point.
“The hundreds of billions (of ringgit) taken, and still being taken, out of Sarawak have not benefitted the British — they have overwhelmingly benefitted Malaya,” Lau added.
Mahathir had said in an interview with FMT that national policies in a federation must take precedence over state-specific demands. He also said Petronas must not be undermined by political pressure, stating his belief that there were other solutions that could also benefit Sarawak.
The Sarawak government has pushed for control over its oil and gas reserves, relying on pre-independence laws over the Petroleum Development Act 1974 which grants Petronas the exclusive rights to exploit oil and gas reserves.
Tensions have been escalating between Petronas and Sarawak-owned Petros in a licensing dispute, after the Petronas exploration subsidiary Petronas Carigali was accused by Sarawak of operating its Miri crude oil terminal without a state licence.
On Friday, the Prime Minister’s Office said Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim and Sarawak premier Abang Johari Openg had agreed to finalise key principles to support negotiations between Petronas and Petros.