KUALA LUMPUR: Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah appeared unperturbed today over suggestions that he could face disciplinary action from Umno over his defiant stand to support Kelantan’s oil royalty claim against the Barisan Nasional (BN) federal government. “Who am I next to the real issue, the law and the rights of the people? Umno can do what they want. After that they still have to deal with the law of the land and face the people,” he said today.
He pointed out that whatever Umno wanted to do to him was irrelevant, arguing that the issue was over what the law says regarding the rights of states to oil royalty.
The Gua Musang MP had told a packed Stadium Sultan Mohamed IV in Kelantan last Thursday that national oil firm Petronas was bound by law to give the money to states where oil is found, adding Kelantan was not interested in compassionate payments.
“Kelantan may be poor. But we are not beggars. We demand what is rightfully ours,” the Kelantan prince said to cheers and cries of “Allahu Akbar (God is great)” at the gathering organised by the state government over the oil royalty issue.
Prime Minister and Umno president Datuk Seri Najib Razak tried to avoid saying too much about the matter when asked to comment the next day. But he stressed that party discipline must be maintained at all times.
Tengku Razaleigh maintained today that federal law gave Kelantan, as well as Terengganu, legal right to five per cent of the profit from oil found offshore.
“That law is the Petroleum Development Act that gave birth to Petronas.
“As Chairman of Petronas I drafted this law and signed these agreements on the instruction of the late Tun (Abdul) Razak (Hussein) because he wanted to ensure that the poorer states in the peninsula would benefit from oil found offshore. He knew they didn’t have oil onshore or within state territorial waters.”
The PAS government demanded the oil royalty payment from Petronas last year, after the Statistics Department revealed that Kelantan, together with Sabah and Terengganu, had contributed 62.5 per cent of oil extracted in Malaysia.
The Barisan Nasional federal government has insisted that oil from the joint development area with Thailand is not part of Kelantan’s waters and has only offered RM20 million as “compassionate payment”.
But Razaleigh, the founding chairman of Petronas, disagreed with the government’s move, saying the formula for oil royalty was first agreed with Sarawak and later extended to all states.
The move has a precedent in Terengganu after the 1999 general elections, when PAS won the state, prompting the federal government to convert oil royalty payments to “compassionate payments” managed by a federal government department.
Terengganu had sued for its right and Putrajaya relented only after Barisan Nasional recaptured the state.
Mi
02/02/10
He pointed out that whatever Umno wanted to do to him was irrelevant, arguing that the issue was over what the law says regarding the rights of states to oil royalty.
The Gua Musang MP had told a packed Stadium Sultan Mohamed IV in Kelantan last Thursday that national oil firm Petronas was bound by law to give the money to states where oil is found, adding Kelantan was not interested in compassionate payments.
“Kelantan may be poor. But we are not beggars. We demand what is rightfully ours,” the Kelantan prince said to cheers and cries of “Allahu Akbar (God is great)” at the gathering organised by the state government over the oil royalty issue.
Prime Minister and Umno president Datuk Seri Najib Razak tried to avoid saying too much about the matter when asked to comment the next day. But he stressed that party discipline must be maintained at all times.
Tengku Razaleigh maintained today that federal law gave Kelantan, as well as Terengganu, legal right to five per cent of the profit from oil found offshore.
“That law is the Petroleum Development Act that gave birth to Petronas.
“As Chairman of Petronas I drafted this law and signed these agreements on the instruction of the late Tun (Abdul) Razak (Hussein) because he wanted to ensure that the poorer states in the peninsula would benefit from oil found offshore. He knew they didn’t have oil onshore or within state territorial waters.”
The PAS government demanded the oil royalty payment from Petronas last year, after the Statistics Department revealed that Kelantan, together with Sabah and Terengganu, had contributed 62.5 per cent of oil extracted in Malaysia.
The Barisan Nasional federal government has insisted that oil from the joint development area with Thailand is not part of Kelantan’s waters and has only offered RM20 million as “compassionate payment”.
But Razaleigh, the founding chairman of Petronas, disagreed with the government’s move, saying the formula for oil royalty was first agreed with Sarawak and later extended to all states.
The move has a precedent in Terengganu after the 1999 general elections, when PAS won the state, prompting the federal government to convert oil royalty payments to “compassionate payments” managed by a federal government department.
Terengganu had sued for its right and Putrajaya relented only after Barisan Nasional recaptured the state.
Mi
02/02/10
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