THE new Sabah government must take proactive measures to exert its rights or risk losing the state’s petroleum resources to the federal government, said the state’s special task minister and chair of the Sabah Rights Committee, Teo Chee Kang.

The Liberal Democratic Party president said the move by state oil firm Petronas to mount a legal challenge against Sarawak and claim exclusive rights over the country’s petroleum resources will have also implications on Sabah, the state with the largest oil reserves in the country.

Teo said that in its election manifesto, Pakatan Harapan promised the people of Sabah and Sarawak 20% oil royalties compared with the current 5%.

“Now that they have formed the federal government and are part of the Sabah government, they must honour it without delay,” he said in a statement.

He said that to begin with, the Territorial Sea Act 2012 (Act 750) that defined the boundary of Sabah that was passed by the federal government without the consent of the state must be enacted in the Sabah legislative assembly.

“This is a constitutional requirement that is provided for under Article 2 of the Federal Constitution.

“Failure to obtain such prior consent would render the said act void or not binding on Sabah,” said Teo.

A failure to enact the act would mean that Sabah would still have territorial control over the continental shelf and oil reserves that fall under it, he said.

In a Facebook post today, Penampang MP Darrel Leiking said that Sabah and Sarawak should form a Borneo bloc to challenge the suit by Petronas.

“Sabah and Sarawak should manage its own resources.

“We can share with the rest of the federation but it should not be at the detriment of Sabahans or Sarawakians.

“All the more reason for the Borneo bloc to be realised now, as there had only been a recent change of the national government,” he said.

Meanwhile, a Parti Warisan Sabah member initiated an online petition today stating that all resources extracted from Sabah rightfully belonged to Sabahans.

This was on the grounds that Sabahans have agreed to share their own resources in return for federal support on certain matters like security and health, as stipulated in the Malaysia Agreement 1963. – June 5, 2018.