SARAWAK will defend and exercise its rights over the underwater “James Shoal” which holds an estimated 93 billion barrels of oil and gas, said Chief Minister Abang Johari Openg.

Abang Johari said the allegation that Sarawak had conceded ground on the constitutionality and legality of the application of the provisions in the Petroleum Development Act 1974”, was not true.

He was responding to Parti Sarawak Bersatu (PSB) assemblyman See Chee How’s claims that Sarawak had been “short-changed” in the commercial settlement agreement that the state government had inked with Petronas on Monday.

See based his claim on the statement made by Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin after the signing ceremony that Petronas will continue to play its role as the national oil company with full authority and power over the regulations and development of the oil and gas industry.

James Shoal is an underwater shoal in the South China Sea about 45 nautical miles off Bintulu.

Abang Johari said the dispute with Petronas over control of the state’s hydrocarbon resources had always been in the interest of Sarawak and to realise her development dreams.

Speaking at the ground-breaking ceremony for the new multi-million-ringgit Wisma Melayu Sarawak in Petra Jaya today, the chief minister said the state may have had a string of Malay chief ministers since the 1970s till today, but the policies of the state government have never been Malay-centric.

He said the policies of the state government from the time of the third chief minister, Abdul Rahman Yaakub, who was in office for 11 years from July 1970 to March 1981, to Abdul Taib Mahmud (1981–2014), Adenan Satem (2014–2017) and now him, have always been “Sarawak-centric”.

“We have never been race-centric,” Abang Johari said, addressing allegations on how the small Malay-Melanau racial grouping could be ruling the state over the larger Dayak and Chinese racial groups.

“The policies have always been on what is equitable to all the races and what benefits all Sarawakians.”

He said being fair to the various non-Muslim groups is also in line with the Islamic teaching that “whoever is in power have to be fair to the non-Muslims”.

Earlier, Deputy Chief Minister Awang Tengah Ali Hassan in his opening address as the president of the Sarawak Malay Cultural Foundation, said Sarawak is no longer in an era where the big is strong and the small is weak.

He said in this technological era, “it’s not the big that swallows the small but the fast that catches the slow”.

“In Sarawak, no one race can claim they are the majority and could rule on their own. We can only become the majority if all the races are united to form a stable and strong government.” – December 10, 2020.