TWO DAP members said they will remain on Sarawak’s bipartisan Consultative Committee on the Malaysia Agreement 1963 although they supported Batu Lintang assemblyman See Chee How’s action to quit yesterday.

In a joint statement, Chiew Chin Sing (Tanjong Batu) and Irene Chang (Bukit Assek) said while they respected See’s decision to resign from the committee, they have resolved to remain to “play our roles as entrusted upon us by our party, the state legislative assembly and all Sarawakians”.

“We shall continue to advance and safeguard the special interests, rights and position of Sarawak as enshrined in MA63 and the federal constitution. 

“No effort shall be spared in ensuring that the expectations of our fellow Sarawakians for greater autonomy and devolution of powers to our state are met through our role in the Consultative Committee,” they said.

See, a former PKR Sarawak vice chairman before he was sacked for siding with the party’s former deputy president Mohd Azmin Ali in the party’s power struggle, resigned from the committee to protest against the state government bypassing the committee in negotiations with Petronas and Putrajaya over the settlement of the state sales tax and other matters.

See, who has joined Parti Sarawak Bersatu (PSB), said the bypassing the committee would open the state to accusations of lack of transparency in its negotiations with the national petroleum company and the federal government.

Sarawak is now in a dispute over the amount Petronas has to pay to the state. 

“We stand with See in protesting against the (recent actions of the) state government-formed Working Committee under Deputy Chief Minister III Awang Tengah Ali Hasan to not involve the negotiating team from the consultative committee in the commercial negotiations with Petronas and federal government,” the DAP duo said.

They said the DCM’s working committee is negotiating the finer details of the terms of settlement but the consultative committee has not been engaged or been invited to the talks.

“The lack of involvement of the negotiating team from the consultative committee defeats the purpose of why it was set up in the first place,” they said.

The consultative committee’s negotiating team was formed on June 10 and chaired by Tourism, Arts and Culture Minister Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah.

It was tasked with keeping abreast with the negotiations between Sarawak and Petronas and the federal government.

Chiew and Chang said consultative committee agreed on June 10 that its negotiators would be empowered to negotiate in the three provinces of the Petroleum Development Act 1974 (PDA74), Continental Shelf Act 1966, and the Territorial Sea Act 2012, which they said contravenes Article 2b of the federal constitution.

“As far as we can remember from the meeting, it was never the purpose of the consultative committee to strictly limit or confine its power and authority to just tackle the legal aspects of negotiation.

“It is therefore not right for the working committee under the deputy chief minister to carry on with their unilateral negotiation without roping in the negotiating team from the Consultative Committee.”

“We therefore call on the Tourism, Arts and Culture Minister Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah, who heads the negotiating team from the consultative committee, to insist that his team be henceforth actively engaged in the ongoing negotiations between Sarawak, Petronas and the federal government.”

They said Karim should be “very mindful that a heavy burden lies on his and his negotiating team’s shoulder to ensure that the history of 1975 does not repeat itself with the executive continuing to ignore the boundaries set up by the legislative”.

“A heavy burden therefore lies in the negotiating team’s hands that Sarawak be socially and economically restored to her rightful place through the role they should play in the negotiation.”

They also called for an urgent meeting of the consultative committee “to fill in the void left by See Chee How who was representing the voice of the opposition parties”. – July 15, 2020.