Published on: Wednesday, May 05, 2010 |
Kota Kinabalu: The Foreign Ministry's explanation on Petronas being given the commercial right to operate oil Blocks J and K in Brunei under commercial arrangement CA1 and CA2 (also known as Blocks L and M in Malaysia) showed that the Federal Government has sacrificed Sabah's rights and interests.
Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) President Datuk Yong Teck Lee claimed that the Ministry was, in fact, trying to explain an illegal and unconstitutional act.
He said the Ministry had asserted that the key elements of the Exchange of Letters in Brunei on March 16, 2009 between Malaysia and Brunei was the delimitation of maritime boundaries, maritime access, commercial arrangement for oil and gas and land boundaries.
"(So) why didn't the former Prime Minister mention anything about oil and gas and the loss of maritime territories when he proclaimed that Brunei had agreed to drop their claim on Limbang after the Exchange of Letters on March 16, 2009 between him and the Sultan of Brunei?," he asked.
In fact, he said immediately after Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi declared that Brunei had dropped its claim on Limbang, Brunei's Second Foreign Minister issued a vehement denial.
"Following the denial, there was no response from Malaysia," Yong said, adding, initially, it was thought that Brunei was caught in a bad deal without realising until it was too late.
"I was doubtful Malaysia would make such a mistake in bilateral negotiations. But we now know that our ex-PM told only half the truth by disclosing the Limbang issue but not the loss of the oil blocks."
Instead of disclosing the loss of Malaysia's maritime territories, he said Abdullah only chose to announce that Brunei had dropped its claim on Limbang.
"But why was the former PM completely silent on the loss of Blocks L and M that Malaysia has signed away?," he asked.
He further asked why Malaysians, including former PM Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, knew only through the announcement by Murphy Oil Corporation in the New York Stock Exchange on April 22 that the two blocks were "no longer a part of Malaysia".
"The announcement shows that prior to the Exchange of Letters, the blocks were indeed part of Malaysia.
"Was there something to hide? Or did the Government find it impossible to justify the contents of letters of March 16, 2009? Why was neither Parliament nor the Sabah State Legislative Assembly also informed?," he asked.
Yong said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs also tried to justify the loss of Sabah's three million acres in Blocks L and M by relying on the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea 1982 (UNCLOS 1982) which gave the areas to Brunei.
He said if the UNCLOS 1982 explained it so thoroughly that the three million acres belonged to Brunei, why did Malaysia award the same area to an oil company (Murphy Oil) in January 2003.
The people, he said, have not forgotten that the previous month (December 2002), Malaysia had just won the Sipadan/Ligitan case at the International Court of Justice.
He said Malaysia was already an expert on international law in territorial disputes. "Surely, our government and Petronas lawyers were already convinced about the Malaysian status of Block L and M before awarding them to Murphy Oil."
Thus, he said Foreign Ministry officials, government lawyers and Mapping Department as well as Petronas and other agencies were incompetent for not knowing whether the areas were within Malaysian or Brunei territory.
On Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib's calls for the solution to the boundaries issue with Brunei as "win-win", he said for Sabah it is "lose-lose" because it lost the five per cent oil royalties worth RM 16 billion and three million acres of maritime territory.
The "win-win" is only for Petronas but in the case of Sabah 's rights and interests, it has been sacrificed, he added.
"This is the price that Sabah has to pay for being the "fixed deposit" of the Barisan Nasional," he said, adding that Sarawak, which is virtually free of Umno's presence, is doing far better.
