KUCHING, Jan 19 — State Reform Party (STAR) has urged the Sarawak government today to take positive action to physically block the oil and gas giant Petroliam Nasional Berhad (Petronas) from extracting more oil and gas from the state’s territorial waters.
Its president Lina Soo said such an action will motivate the federal government to sue the Sarawak government for blocking Petronas oil rigs, following Putrajaya’s suit against the Kelantan government to protect the Orang Asli community.
“The court action will determine if the Petroleum Development Act 1974 (PDA) is enforceable upon Sarawak land where Petronas is operating commercially on state’s land,” she said.
She had long held the view that PDA is of no effect on Sarawak as it is unconstitutional since it has never been ratified by the Sarawak State Legislative Assembly.
Under PDA, Petronas is given the exclusive rights to extract oil and gas resources from Sarawak’s territorial waters.
Yesterday, federal Attorney-General Tommy Thomas had announced that the government in the first of its kind has filed a civil suit against the Kelantan state government and its agencies to prevent further destruction of native land for commercial profit.
Other defendants in the suit included the Kelantan state director of Lands and Mines, the Kelantan state director of the Forestry Department, and five private entities.
The AGC filed the suit at the High Court in Kota Baru, where they sought the legal recognition of the Temiar Orang Asli’s native land rights in Pos Simpor and injunctions to restrain private parties from encroaching upon it.
The Temiar Orang Asli in Gua Musang alleged loggers have encroached deep into its ancestral land in violation of laws meant to protect the indigenous community, which it claimed the Kelantan state government had failed to uphold.
Soo said she believed that the Kelantan case may well be a prelude to establishing a landmark decision in which the federal government seems to intrude into a land matter which is a state’s right.
“This case may well show that a new legal precedent is in the offing to set federal authority on Kelantan state land which is an exclusive jurisdiction of the state,” she said, adding that any precedent in the case may well apply to only states in Peninsular Malaysia.
Soo said it cannot be applied to Sarawak as it is bound by its own land code which cannot be amended or repealed except through Sarawak State Legislative Assembly.
Soo described the federal government’s move as an election gimmick to win the Orang Asli votes in view of the by-election in Cameron Highlands.
“It is also to win the Dayak votes in the upcoming 12th state election due in 2021,” she said.
