PAS sails to pressure for oil royalties

You can accuse me of being pro-PAS if you like.

But the article below was actually written because it was a good story:

A group of 70 guys were crazy enough to be cramped inside three boats to sail into the unknown.

And it involved claims of a lot of oil money, politics in Klate Darul Condensate, Sinbad Melayu and sunshine.

Nasib baik tak ada reporter The Star (kawan aku) terjatuh ke dalam laut makan jerung - bukan dimakan jerung (Hahaha! Jangan marah ah).

Nasib baik tak kena rompak nelayan Thailand.

Tak ada ribut petir gelombang ala The Perfect Storm, semua bot hilang (mampoi kena ada pilihanraya kecil di banyak tempat!)

Tak jumpa Nyi Roro Kidul dan naganya.

Heehee.

By the way, Sheih Kickdefella now wanna make trips to ALL 15 oil and gas rigs out there in South China Sea. Wow. Bulan puasa dah dekat oi.

Nak pinjam submarine Temasek? Cepat sikit.

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The Straits Times

Aug 10, 2009

PAS pressuring KL for 'oil royalties'

Kelantan wants the $700m it is 'owed' by federal govt; Tengku Razaleigh backing state's claim

By Reme Ahmad,

ASSISTANT FOREIGN EDITOR

PICTURE: One of three boats which took opposition leaders and journalists to a gas field 13 hours away being steered back to shore. The federal government refuses to pay PAS-held Kelantan oil royalties, saying the resources lie outside of its waters. -- PHOTO: COURTESY OF SYED AZIDI SYED ABDUL AZIZ


SEVENTY people set sail in three boats on a 26-hour round trip of the South China Sea last week.

Their mission gave Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak a new headache in Kelantan - although some themselves returned seasick.

Malaysia produces oil and gas offshore, in the South China Sea, and a growing number of Kelantan residents feel that the federal government owes the east coast state at least RM1.7 billion (S$700 million) in 'oil royalties'.

Ten leaders of Malaysia's opposition Parti Islam SeMalaysia (PAS) and Parti Keadilan Rakyat went on the watery expedition on Tuesday to make that point.

The rest were mostly journalists, bloggers and PAS members from Kelantan, a state that has remained in PAS hands for 19 years.Kelantan's Deputy Speaker Zaki Ibrahim led the mission and state executive councillor Husam Musa was also on one boat.

The two fishing boats and one decommissioned navy boat sailed from two jetties in Kelantan.

Tabloid reporter Khairi Mohamad, who went on the trip, was quoted as saying in a newspaper: 'The trip was a harrowing experience and almost all of us suffered from severe seasickness.'

Malaysia extracts hydrocarbon resources from Sabah, Sarawak, Terengganu and Pahang.

Each receives a 5 per cent royalty a year from the federal government based on the values of the deposits brought out.

Most Malaysians refer to this simply as an 'oil royalty'.

Terengganu, next to Kelantan, has been receiving from RM800 million to RM1 billion a year for as long as anyone can remember.

The money is used to build roads, schools and public buildings as well as pay salaries of state civil servants.

When Terengganu fell to PAS in the 1999 general election, then-Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad almost immediately decided not to pay the royalty to the state government of the day.

Despite loud protests by PAS, Tun Dr Mahathir said the royalty belonged to the people of Terengganu.

He renamed the royalty 'wang ehsan' (compassionate funds) and handed the money to Terengganu Umno leaders to manage.

When Umno and the Barisan Nasional (BN) took back Terengganu in the 2004 general election, the funds were renamed the oil royalty and handed again to state Umno chiefs.

Kelantan fell to the Islamist party PAS in 1990 - in the early days of offshore oil drilling in Malaysia led by national oil firm Petroliam Nasional (Petronas).

Thus, the federal government, helmed by the BN coalition, has never paid Kelantan any oil royalty.

Its argument: The hydrocarbon resources are in the Thai-Malaysia Joint Development Area (JDA), a wide expanse of sea in which Malaysia's and Thailand's territories overlap.

They are thus not in Kelantan waters.

The revenues are kept by the federal government.But PAS claims this is unfair and has been pushing for the royalties, even if the drillings are in the JDA.

It says that even in the JDA, the area is within Kelantan's territorial waters.

In the run-up to the March general election last year, PAS released hydrocarbon drilling maps - said by PAS to be Petronas maps obtained unofficially.

The maps, if indeed accurate, show that some of the drilling is done in Kelantan territory.Some of the maps were recently posted by an aide of Mr Husam in his popular blog kickdefella. wordpress.com.

PAS claims that the federal government owed Kelantan at least RM1.7 billion, based on documents linked to the drillings it has received.

The Islamist party received a big boost several weeks ago when Kelantan prince and respected Umno leader Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah backed its claims.

The long-serving MP had served as Petronas chairman in its early years.

'If I were still chairman of Petronas, I would pay without all the fuss,' he told the Malaysian Insider website in an interview last month.

'And I feel all the more it should be paid because I signed the agreement. There is no two ways about it. It must be paid.'

Two weeks ago, he revealed his reply to a letter from Kelantan Menteri Besar Nik Aziz Nik Mat about the oil royalty.

Tengku Razaleigh wrote: 'Petronas must pay the Kelantan state government the cash payment of 5 per cent of the value of petroleum resources extracted from Malaysian waters offshore (of) Kelantan.'

It was with this background that the three boats set sail for a gas rig in the Cakerawala field in the South China Sea.

Mr Husam said in his blog last Thursday that the Cakerawala (Malay for 'constellation') is located 153km offshore and is thus 'confirmed' to be within Kelantan's territory.

And he said three other fields - Lawit, Jerneh and Bintang - are just 68km from the Kelantan shoreline.

'There is no more reason for the federal government to give excuses on the royalty because it is indeed the right of the people of the state,' wrote Mr Husam, who has been told to handle the royalty issue by the Kelantan government.

The federal government has not commented on Tengku Razaleigh's comments or the boat trip but last week's voyage has certainly stirred up waves of support in Kelantan.