Why didn’t Chong query Azalina, SUPP man says
Lo Khere Chiang says the Sarawak DAP chairman was trying to score political points over a federal-state agreement on oil and gas rights.
PETALING JAYA: Sarawak DAP chairman Chong Chieng Jen has been accused of trying to score political points by suggesting that the state had once again surrendered its oil and gas rights to the federal government.
Chong should have demanded answers on the matter from law and institutional reform minister Azalina Othman Said instead of raising his queries at a press conference, said Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP) deputy secretary-general Lo Khere Chiang.
Lo said Chong’s insinuations yesterday were misleading and irresponsible, the Borneo Post reported.
Lo said the state’s Oil Mining Ordinance 1958 continues to govern Sarawak resources, and that the state’s territorial boundaries were non-negotiable.
Last week, Azalina had given details of an agreement between the federal and state governments in which Sarawak acknowledged that Petronas had rights over oil and gas under federal law. The state government also agreed it would not enforce or apply state laws to all Petronas operations in Sarawak “past, present and future”.
Yesterday, Chong called on the state and federal governments to clarify details of the agreement. He said it appeared to imply that “it would be the second time that the Sarawak government has compromised and given up its oil and gas rights to the federal government”.
He also said he would raise the matter in Parliament next week.
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