REFORM Party Sarawak (Star) plans to assemble an alternative team of lawyers to hold a watching brief over the legal proceedings involving Petronas in the Federal Court.

The national oil company is seeking a declaration that the Petroleum Development Act 1974 (PDA) gives it exclusive ownership over the nation’s petroleum resources, including in Sarawak.

Star president Lina Soo said it is engaging Robert Pei, a Sarawak-born lawyer currently practicing in Australia, to assist the legal team on a pro bono basis.

Pei was the forum panellist who, in 2014, said the Malaysia Agreement 1963 – the treaty that brought North Borneo, Sarawak and Singapore together to form the Federation of Malaysia – was invalid.

In the forum held in Kuching, he had said MA63 was “void ab initio” (“not valid from the start” in Latin) as it was not in compliance with the established principles and rules of international laws, like the Vienna Convention on Law of Treaties, Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1946 and United Nations Decolonisation Declaration 1960.

In a press conference after chairing a meeting to discuss the Petronas suit, Soo announced plans to set up the Sarawak MA63 Fund, to pay for legal opinion from an Australian expert on constitutional law, international law and federalism, and to push for the case to be heard in a UK court.

“In the event the Petronas court case proceeds, the Sarawak MA63 Fund will also be facilitated to proceed to the British court, if need be.”

She said having a UK court determine both PDA and the Territorial Sea Act 2012 (TSA) for breaches of MA63 is appropriate as Britain is a party to the agreement.

TSA alters Sarawak’s sea boundary to only 4.8km offshore, instead of the internationally recognised 19km. This has led critics to say it is an attempt by the federal government to plunder Sarawak’s continental shelf of its natural resources, particularly oil and gas.

Soo said she hopes Sarawakians will be generous and do their patriotic bit by contributing “to the cause, for the future of Sarawak’s sovereignty”.

Yesterday, lawyers from the Advocates Association of Sarawak (AAS) agreed to form a task force and offer their expertise to the state on a pro bono basis, in the fight to regain lost and eroded state rights.

“For Sarawak, we’ll fight all the way. We’ll fight tooth and nail,” Ranbir Singh Sangha, president of AAS, said after meeting Chief Minister Abang Johari Openg on how lawyers can help the state government fight the Petronas suit and issues relating to state rights.

Ranbir said the task force will assist the state government “to look into all matters related to MA63 and our Sarawak rights”. – June 8, 2018.