KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 17 — State Reform Party Sarawak (Star) president Lina Soo has slammed the Dewan Bahasa Pustaka for omitting Sarawak as one of the oil and gas states in Malaysia in the Bahasa Melayu Form 1 textbook.
The Borneo Post reported Soo as saying that the mistake in the textbook, which has been in use since 2017, was unacceptable.
“The book did not mention Sarawak as one of the petroleum producers in Malaysia despite Sarawak being one of the richest oil and gas locations in the world and a main contributor to federal coffers,” Soo reportedly said.
The error was found in pages 22 and 23 of the textbook in a section that covers the nation's oil and gas industry which read:
“The major oil producers of the world are United States (13.7%), Saudi Arabia (11.9%) and Russia (11.0%). Malaysia is among the world oil producers. Oil exploration areas in Malaysia are found in waters off Terengganu, Kelantan and Sabah.”
Soo said this sends a wrong message to school kids since there was no mention about Sarawak being the country’s largest oil producer.
She then questioned how DBP could have left the state out when according to Petronas’ official report, it produces 750,000 barrels of oil worth more than RM150 million per day.
“The figure can even reach capacity of 850,000 BOE per day. 750,000 x US$50 x RM4 = RM150 million assuming oil is US$50 per barrel. It went up to US$73 in September 2018,” she reportedly said while calling on the Education Ministry to rectify the mistake immediately.
The portal reported that Education Minister Maszlee Malik could not be reached for comment at press time.
