Statement by Voon Lee Shan, President, Parti Bumi Kenyalang (PBK)
Sarawak and Sabah need to be vigilant at all times and must not allow themselves to be misguided by the Federal Government in dealing with the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63).
At the same time, Sarawakians and Sabahans must not allow themselves to be misguided by our own Sarawak and Sabah governments. They may under pressure from federal, lapse at times.
The people must look beyond political announcements and ask the more fundamental question:
What have Sarawak and Sabah actually gained — and what have we lost — under Malaysia?
Additional parliamentary seats are not the most important issue for Sarawak and Sabah at the moment.
The real issues are money, revenue, natural resources and control over our own economic destiny. WITHOUT MONEY, WE REMAIN BEGGARS. Without money, how would Sarawak and Sabah be able to develop and to build infrastructure and to provide better facilities and welfare for our people?
What is the value of political representation if Sarawak and Sabah have to continue begging the Federal Government to return the money generated from our own resources?
What is the value of additional seats if we do not have meaningful control over our own natural resources? We want all our oil and gas be returned to us. At the same time, we want the return of all revenues from oil and gas taken by PETRONAS since 1974 to be returned to us. We have to repeal the Petroleum Development Act 1974 ( PDA74) to get back our oil and gas resources
If the Federal Government takes our revenues and resources and then returns a portion to us as “allocations”, we must ask ourselves:
Are we partners in Malaysia, or are we merely recipients of our own money?
Sarawak and Sabah must not become beggars for the return of their own wealth.
We must have a fair and constitutionally protected share of our revenues, together with meaningful control over the natural resources belonging to our territories.
