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Kota Kinabalu: Former Petronas Chairman and Finance Minister Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah said then Chief Minister Tun Mustapha Datu Harun threatened to pull Sabah out of Malaysia if the state was only supposed to receive 5 per cent revenue from the petroleum resources extracted from the State. 

Razaleigh said Tun Mustapha insisted on rejecting the deal as he felt that the 5pc royalty under the Petronas agreement was inadequate and demanded it be raised to 10 to 20 per cent.

Before Petronas came along, the oil producing states were receiving 12pc royalty from the foreign oil firms.

“If not, he (Mustapha) threatened to pull Sabah out of Malaysia. I said no way! The laws on extraction were already in force. I invited him to discuss, but he refused.