IN the latest move by Sarawak to reclaim its constitutional rights, the state government has told Petronas to get the necessary mining permits in a move seen as exerting its mining rights.

Chief Minister Abang Johari Openg said even though the Petroleum Development Act 1974 (PDA) gave the national petroleum company the right to explore and mine for petroleum in Sarawak, the state still retains the right to issuing mining leases.

He said the rights are listed in the federal constitution.

“The power of the state to issue mining leases remains in the state list of the federal constitution.

“We must exert our mining rights,” he told the state assembly this afternoon.

“In exerting our right to mining, we are saying that, even if the PDA has vested the rights to exploration and export of petroleum to Petronas by the federal government, it does not mean that Petronas has the right to simply enter into Sarawak territory, be it land or sea.”

Therefore, before Petronas could operate in Sarawak territory, the company must obtain the necessary licences or leases to operate in the state, he said.

The chief minister said in exerting its mining rights, “we are not saying that we are not friendly to the petroleum business in Sarawak”.

He gave an assurance that the state has no intention of disrupting the normal business of the petroleum industry in exerting the state’s mining rights.

“We welcome the development of the petroleum industry in Sarawak.”

Abang Johari said the state is exerting it rights under Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63) because “we want to safeguard our economic interests for the present and future generations of Sarawakians”.

“It is about reclaiming what God has given us for our fair share of the earth.

“The rights of Sarawak are enshrined in the Malaysia Agreement of 1963, which is an international treaty that has not been amended by all the signatory parties as peers.”

The signatories are the federated states of Malaya, Sarawak, then North Borneo (Sabah), Singapore and the government of the United Kingdom.

Singapore later left the federation.

Abang Johari told the assembly the MA63 has not been amended as the federal government alone on its own cannot amend the agreement “which is an international treaty”.

“We in Sarawak continue to exert our rights under MA63 because if we don’t look after ourselves, nobody else will.”

Sarawak is still disputing the validity of the Continental Shelf Act, 1966, which vested exploration rights of the continental shelf and the natural resources in it to the federal government.

The others are the Territorial Sea Act 2012 which limited Sarawak’s territorial sea limits only to 3 nautical miles from its shoreline and the PDA.

He said agreeing to compensate Sarawak in cash – the 5% royalty – the federal government has acknowledged the state’s rights to its petroleum resources.

On the state’s demand to hike the 5% royalty to 20%, Abang Johari admitted the state has not succeeded in getting the demand.

He blamed it on the crash in the oil price.

“Many oil companies have closed shop. At a time like this, trying to change the business model now is a very sensitive matter.” – November 17, 2017.