SARAWAK Pakatan Harapan is subservient to Putrajaya and will obey what is decided by central leaders or the prime minister, said a chief minister’s aide today.

The political secretary to the Sarawak chief minister, Soo Li Ching, said Sarawak PH chief Chong Chieng Jen has no locus standi to promise anything to the state.

She said if Chong is truly fighting for the interests of Sarawakians, the Stampin MP should tell the prime minister and Petronas to give 20% of oil revenue to Sarawak or the national oil company should halt operations in the state.

She said this in response to Chong’s statement yesterday that the PH’s general election promise to increase the state’s oil royalty from 5% to 20% came with conditions.

Chong, the deputy minister of domestic trade and consumer affairs, said the promise was on the condition that the state government assumed fiscal responsibility over education and health.

He had said PH had promised under the “Fiscal Decentralisation: Taxation & Public Revenues” of its election manifesto that PH would give 20% oil and gas royalty or its equivalent, as well as 50% tax revenues collected in Sarawak to the state, if Kuching took over education and health.

He had said Chief Minister Abang Johari Openg and the Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) state government had rejected this offer.

Soo said Chong had no say in increasing the oil royalty or returning 50% of taxes collected by the federal government in the state.

She said if Chong was in a position to make promises, there would be no reason for Abang Johari to negotiate directly with Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad on the oil and gas revenue dispute.

Soo said she believed Sarawakians felt cheated by “the sweet talk of being given back the 20% of the oil royalty and 50% of all tax revenues collected in Sarawak”.

“The Sarawak government under GPS stands firm in fighting for Sarawak’s interests.

“The shared prosperity policy as claimed by PH is just a slogan and all talk.” – September 30, 2019.