Kelantan jangan tertipu dengan Jawatankuasa khas mengkaji pembayaran royalti minyak...

Terengganu menolak penubuhan jawatankuasa khas mengkaji pembayaran royalti/bayaran tunai petroleum untuk Pantai Timur serta mendakwa ia semata-mata pembohongan politik.

Pada masa sama, Pesuruhjaya PAS negeri, Mohd Abdul Wahid Endut berkata, beliau menasihatkan Kelantan tidak tertipu dengan perancangan Pusat.

Katanya, andainya Kelantan mendapat royalti minyak tetapi pada masa sama ,saman mesti diteruskan.

“Buat apa lagi jawatankuasa ini kerana semua perjanjian sudah ada. Memang sahih minyak di perairan Kelantan tetapi Pusat mendaratkan di Thailand.

“Jawatankuasa ini untuk pilihanraya,” tambah ahli Parlimen Kuala Terengganu itu.

Mohd Abdul Wahid berkata, apa yang berlaku di Terengganu mungkin boleh terjadi juga di Kelantan.

“Pada pilihanraya kecil Kuala Terengganu pada 2009,  Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak menyampaikan wang hasil minyak berjumlah hampir RM500 juta kepada Terengganu tetapi itu adalah royalti untuk tahun 2009.

“Apa yang berlaku di Terengganu sekarang? Sudah tiga tahun Terengganu tidak mendapat royalti. Tetapi minyak Terengganu  telah diberikan kepada semua negeri di Malaysia,” tambahnya.

Ditanya mengapa panel itu turut memasukkan negeri Pahang, Mohd Abdul Wahid berkata, Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak sudah pandai kerana mahu mengalih ke negeri kelahirannya itu.

Katanya, selepas ini jika Johor menuntut royalti, Najib akan memasukkan negeri itu pula.

Jumlah royalti berbeza

Najib pada Sabtu lalu mengumumkan penubuhan jawatankuasa khas yang akan mengkaji secara adil dan telus berhubung isu bayaran tunai petroleum kepada negeri-negeri Pantai Timur.

Jawatankuasa itu akan dipengerusikan oleh bekas Ketua Hakim Negara Tan Sri Abdul Hamid Mohamad dan akan dianggotai pakar undang-undang dari dalam dan luar negara, wakil dari kerajaan negeri Pahang, Kelantan dan Terengganu yang diperkenan Sultan negeri-negeri berkenaan.

Bagaimanapun, ahli jawatankuasa Umno Kota baru, Che Mansor Adabi Che Hassan berkata penubuhan jawatankuasa telah menyelesaikan tuntutan royalti minyak Kelantan selama ini.

Tetapi, katanya, jumlah royalti yang diterima antara Kelantan dan negeri Terengganu dan Pahang tidak sama.

Ini kerana  Kelantan tidak ada minyak yang didaratkan serta tidak ada kilang penapis di negeri itu.

Kerajaan Kelantan pula meragui jawatankuasa tersebut.

“Keadaan masih samar-samar. Ketika ia seakan membawa satu sinar harapan, keadaan sebenar hanya akan ditentukan enam bulan dari sekarang.

Kini Ogos, jika pilihanraya diadakan dalam tempoh sebelum Jawantakuasa ini membuat laporan dan seterusnya menunggu pertimbangan Kabinet atas rekomendasi Jawatankuasa ini, keputusannya boleh menjadi seribu kemungkinan.

Ia mungkin berakhir sebagai sebuah latihan akademik semata-mata,” kata Exco Kanan Datuk Husam Musa.- FMT

Kenapa dolak-dalih dalam royalti - Ku Li

'Sudden' oil royalty gesture greeted with caution...

An air of suspicion greeted news that BN Federal government has formed a special committee to work out a “fair” distribution of payments from petroleum revenue to the states of Pahang, Kelantan and Terengganu.

Kelantan Menteri Besar Tuan Guru Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat earlier revealed that prime minister Najib Razak requested the PAS-led administration to appoint its representative to discuss oil royalty payments to the state. This followed Gua Musang member of parliament Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah’s statement urging BN to find a solution to the stalemate surrounding Kelantan’s oil royalty before trying to capture the state at the coming polls.

Nik Aziz said such a committee should have existed long ago following the agreement on oil wealth under the Petroleum Development Act 1974.

“Why only now?” he asked, and said that the committee whose head is former chief judge Abdul Hamid Mohamad should finalise its findings within three months and not six months as proposed by Najib.

Najib said the special committee would determine whether states were eligible to royalty from petroleum revenue, as well as method and quantum involved.

Local and foreign legal experts, alongside representatives of Pahang, Kelantan and Terengganu state governments have been been invited to join the committee.
Nik Aziz said he the Sultan of Kelantan’s consent was being sought over the matter.

However, for Husam Musa, chairman of Kelantan’s Oil Royalty Action Committee, Najib’s latest gesture was a political ploy to temporarily quell anger ahead of the looming general election.

The PAS vice president pointed out that the exercise could turn out to be an empty promise if polls were called before the conclusion of the committee's probe.

“It could just end up as an academic exercise,” he told Harakahdaily.

“Why six months? Why not three? Why just before the election??” he questioned.

Husam further questioned why Najib did not adopt the same solution used in the case of Terengganu's demand for oil wealth, in which the Federal government reached an out-of-court settlement with the state which had taken Petronas to court.

He said the individuals behind the drafting of the PDA had agreed that Kelantan was eligible to royalty payments, naming Razaleigh, former Lord President Salleh Abbas and former Petronas advisor Nik Mohd Saghir.

In May 2011, Terengganu MB Ahmad Said said the state would receiving RM938 million as part of the five percent oil royalty payment in accordance with the 1975 agreement with the Federal government, also signed by Kelantan.

Husam stressed that Kelantan's legal fight against Petronas would go ahead, and demanded Najib to use the Terengganu formula as solution, as well as an apology from UMNO politicians for claiming Kelantan did not deserve the money.

Meanwhile, PAS information chief Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man urged the people in Kelantan not to be over-excited over Najib's gesture.

“It's just a letter, and it doesn’t mean they will be paying. Even then, why should we be grateful to robbers who return out stolen wealth?" he asked.

Tuan Ibrahim also echoed the view that Najib was attempting to 'buy time' with the latest move.

PAS vice president Mahfuz Omar agreed, saying the special committee showed Najib's "panic mode" as elections approached.-harakahdaily

Oil royalties: Why is Musa quiet?

Sabah Chief Minister Musa Aman’s reluctance to push the envelope on oil royalties and demand more of its wealth back from the federal government is puzzling Sabahans in and the opposition here.

Sabah receives a “ridiculous” 5% royalty and despite its natural wealth, is today the poorest state in Malaysia and relies on federal government handouts.

It has also been pointed out that the small allocation of development funds from the Barisan Nasional-led federal government does not commensurate with the size of the state.

Reminding Musa of the lopsidedness of federal funding, state DAP chief Jimmy Wong said that a special committee set up recently by the federal government to determine cash payments from petroleum revenue to the states in the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia had omitted to mention Sabah.

“Sabah was left out despite being one of the biggest oil producers in the country with an estimated contribution of more than RM19 billion a year.

“Why were we left out out of the list? Musa must explain this omission,” said Wong.

He also took Musa to task for alleging yesterday that Pakatan Rakyat (of which DAP is a partner) was using oil royalties as a ploy to fish for votes.

Wong said that Pakatan’s pledge to increase Sabah’s oil royalty payments from 5% to 20% is a promise which is logical.

He said Pakatan’s pledge is to emphasise the state autonomy and is separate from the funds channelled to the state by the federal government.

Wong said that Musa was ignoring the fact that oil and gas extracted in the state belongs to Sabah by saying that it did not matter how the federal government delivered the money to the state as long as it got the money.

Musa’s flawed mindset

Accusing Musa of having a flawed mindest, Wong said that DAP was trying to restore to Sabah what belongs to the state.

He said that with a larger portion of the oil and gas bounty, the state government would be able to invest in the state’s infrastructure “in accordance with the demands of people in Sabah”.

“This is the main concept of Pakatan… an emphasis on decentralisation that would allow the state government the right to allocate funding according to its vision and needs and not rely on federal government policy, which is politically biased.

Wong said that a Pakatan-led government would restore Sabah’s rights and would even bring the issue to the court for a legal remedy.

He said that unlike BN, a Pakatan government was capable of putting the state’s interest first and bring about real development.- FMT

 

cheers.