砂拉越人必須意识到，成立马来西亚的主要原因实际上是巫统马来人贪婪地觊觎石油,天然气和丰富资源，其在东姑阿都拉曼的领导下意识到马来亚独立后的经济如果没有新的财富来源，将继续岌岌可危，特别是因为大多数锡矿和橡胶园仍由英国人和華人操控之下。
历史学家 Greg Poulgrain 从他对以前机密的英国政府文件之研究中注意到，組建马来西亚的主要动力是石油，而不是种族。 这就是为什么马来亞人从来没有真正为执行 1963 年马来西亚协议（MA63）的条款而烦恼，尤其是当他们对砂拉越的石油和天然气（当然沙巴也是）以下流的手段得手之后——任务完成。
MA63 实际上对砂拉越的石油和天然气资源保持沉默，与森林和其他矿产等所有其他自然资源一样，这些资源理所当然地都屬于砂沙的資產；联邦无权也不可剥夺。
这一切都始于马来亚和英国之间正在进行的独立谈判。早在 1953 年，英国人就已经开始实施其“宏伟设计”计划，将其在东南亚的所有五个殖民地合并为某种形式的“英属东南亚领土”。马来亚知道这个“宏伟的设计”，但婆罗洲却懵然不知。 根据每日快报 2020 年 2 月 16 日的一篇评论文章，“......至于砂拉越境内的石油，英国人准备将其交给马来亚控制下的新联邦。当时的砂拉越总督安东尼阿贝尔爵士于1956 年 4 月，在与殖民办公室的通讯中观察到，“马来亚和新加坡的政界人士对婆罗洲领土表现出极大的兴趣，”包括其空旷的空间、潜在的财富和石油”。 这甚至在马来亚独立之前。 英国人让砂拉越人和沙巴人愉快地没有意识到马来人和新加坡人的这种相当大的兴趣。
虽然砂拉越代表团可能不知道马来亚和文莱在 MA63 之前的幕后谈判，但从历史记录中可以清楚地看出，马来亚从一开始就坚持文莱的石油收入将在 10 年之后转交给联邦政府。
当汶莱（特别是汶莱苏丹）不想放弃他们的石油收入时，谈判失败了，
而石油收入是文莱财富的主要来源。
因此，马来亞在与砂拉越和沙巴的谈判中对石油和天然气完全保持沉默，完全打算让砂拉越和沙巴措手不及，他们确实这样做到了; 因为“开发矿产资源、矿山、采矿、矿产和矿物矿石、石油和油田；矿产和矿石的采购、销售、进出口；石油产品;矿山和油田的劳动和安全法规；” 1957 年马来亚联邦宪法附表 9 , 联邦清单第 8 (j) 项已提供。
不幸的是，砂拉越和沙巴没有对此给予任何重视，甚至没有提出任何质疑，因为整个谈判是由英国和马来亚在舞台上进行的。当然，对于狡猾的英国和马来亞来说，沉默意味着同意。
由英国和马来亚并与声称砂拉越“代表”簽署MA63，而砂拉越仍然是殖民地; 遵循国际法院对查戈斯案的意见說明就是為什么MA63实际上是无效的。
到 1966 年，马来亞颁布了 1966 年石油开采法，根据第 1 条第 2 款“适用于整个马来西亚，但在适用于沙巴和砂拉越时，它仅对离岸土地有效”。该法令原定于 1969 年 11 月 8 日对砂拉越和沙巴生效。 为什么只有离岸土地？因为到 1955 年，壳牌公司已经开始进行海洋地震勘测，并在 1957 年放弃了 75% 的土地租赁。 Temana 油田的初步钻探也在 1962 年首次开采石油。 早在 1966 年 7 月，马来亚就已经制定了 1966 年大陆架法案，据此他们非法和违宪地接管了理应属于砂拉越的大陆架。这赋予了马来亞“关于探索大陆架和开发其自然资源的所有权利，特此授予马来西亚，并由联邦政府行使”。 要做到这一点，他们首先必须摆脱新加坡，其次是宁甘，到 1965 年，宁甘已经成为取代本应是婆罗洲化的马来亚化政策的批评者。马来亞一开始从来没有真正想要新加坡，他们也不是真的想要砂拉越和沙巴，只想要砂拉越和沙巴的石油和天然气。 1966 年之后，马来亚控制的联邦政府开始收取砂拉越壳牌公司支付的开採稅，顺便说一下，分别为 10% 和后来的 12.5%，是砂拉越后来超過56年从马来西亚国家石油公司所获得的两倍多。
对于马来亚控制的联邦政府来说，这仍然不够，到 1970 年代，他们开始认真考虑遵循 Pertamina（印度尼西亚）的生产共享模式，为此颁布了非法和违宪的 1974 年石油开发法案（PDA74）; 把马来西亚所有石油资源的全部所有权注入国家石油公司。
所以最终在 1976 年，砂拉越和沙巴因此“失去”了对我们石油和天然气的完全所有权，即使这样做是非法和违宪的。砂拉越和沙巴都没有在法庭上挑战 PDA74。
通过这种方式，砂拉越收到了 5% 的现金支付，而不是之前的 10-12.5%（依据原油或原料气价格）。剩下的 5% 归联邦政府所有，其作为国油的唯一股东，也以股息和公司税、石油所得税和出口关税的形式获得了额外的回报。马来西亚国家石油公司/联邦政府总共获得了石油净收入的 92%，其中大约 6.5-7% 流向了壳牌公司等石油承包商，剩下的 1-1.5% 流向了砂拉越。
這一切都永远失去了，还是砂拉越仍有可能从马来亚的控制和统治中夺回自己的石油和天然气资源的所有权？ 这是一个只能由砂拉越人民和政府来回答的问题。 从海盗手中夺回我们的财产并不容易，他们当然会反抗到底。 砂拉越政府在成立 Petros 和对石油产品征收 SST 方面取得了良好的开端。根据砂拉越总理的说法，仅石油产品的收入迄今已达到 85.2 亿令吉，这是一个相当大的数字，相較於联邦预算对砂拉越撥款仍然没有根据其通过的石油和天然气收入之貢献。
联邦政府似乎认为国油是金鹅，而实际上它是砂拉越和沙巴的。然而，他们在偷所有鸡蛋的同时没有正确喂养金鹅。
砂拉越政府和 Petros 采取了正确的步骤，重新控制砂拉越的陆上石油资产。接下来一定是全面控制砂拉越的离岸石油资产，而石油和天然气仍然保持切題的，同时我们开发新的可再生能源
我们仍然在这里谈论砂拉越的潜在收入，不是数百亿令吉，而是数千亿令吉，可以提高所有砂拉越人的生活水平，特别是那些迄今为止被边缘化和没有适当发展机会的人和社会经济发展机会。
在 1976 年至 2017 年期间，原油和原料气产量超过 6600 亿令吉，其中砂拉越的开採稅收入仅为 330 亿令吉，平均每年为 8.05 亿令吉。
到目前为止，單單砂拉越这个数字应该已经超过 1 兆令吉，再加上加工增加值约 2 兆吉。这就是砂拉越在过去 46 年中所失去的。
正如潘多拉文件所揭示的；马来亞人成功地將1.9兆令吉主要来自砂拉越的石油和天然气收入转移到离岸银行账户中。这是他们不允许在议会辩论的另一个課题。
砂拉越为了通过增值加工, 尽可能多地收回石油和天然气收入，现在已经开展了各种举措，包括建立各种石化和其他炼油厂，以便能够加工和利用我们自己的石油和天然气资源增值而不是像马来西亚国家石油公司现在所做的那样以快速现金廉价出售。
我们需要加强我们国内的天然气分配设施，以便砂拉越人也可以享受我们现在供应到海外和在补貼马来亚更便宜的能源。马来亚拥有超过 2,000 公里的天然气管道，而砂拉越则不到 50 公里。仅对马来亚发电厂、工业和消费者的天然气补贴就已超过 2000 亿令吉，而砂拉越则为零。
为了充分利用我们自己的石油和天然气资源，我们需要从马来西亚国家石油公司和马来亚重新获得对它们的完全控制和所有权。要做到这一点，我们需要加强我们的监管能力和对马来亚采取强硬态度的政治意愿，利用我们自己的石油和天然气資源而不是持續地被牵着鼻子走。
正如我们所看到的，如果我们开发了自己的石油和天然气资源，这將是一次非常昂贵的旅程，在此期间至少花费了我们数兆令吉。我们再也不能被马来亚人欺騙了。他们一直在为自己着想，认为我们是理所当然的，甚至称我们是他们的定期存款。
不再遲疑, 现在是砂拉越人思考我们自己和自己人民的时候了。 否则，我们的石油和天然气将真正永远消失。
Yusuf Abdul Rahman
Kuching 23rd July 2022
SARAWAK’S OIL & GAS – LOST FOREVER?
By Yusuf Abdul Rahman
It is important for Sarawakians to realise that the main reason behind the proposal for the formation of Malaysia was in fact the Oil & Gas resources and wealth that was greedily coveted by the UMNo Malayans, who under Tunku Abdul Rahman had realised that Malaya’s economy after Independence would remain precarious without a new source of wealth, especially since most of the tin mines and rubber estates were still under British and Chinese control.
Greg Poulgrain, a historian has noted from his study of previously classified British government documents that the primary impetus for forming Malaysia was oil, not ethnicity.
This is why the Malayans were never really bothered about implementing the terms of the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63) as fully as they should have, especially once they had gotten their dirty hands on Sarawak’s Oil & Gas (Sabah’s as well, of course) – mission accomplished.
MA63 was in fact silent about Sarawak’s Oil & Gas resources, which rightfully are inalienable assets of the State and not the federation, like all other natural resources such as forests and other minerals.
It all started while the negotiations for independence were proceeding between Malaya and the British. The British since as early as 1953 had also started plans in motion for its “grand design” to merge all of their five colonial possessions in South East Asia into some form of “British SouthEast Asia Dominion”. Malaya was aware of this “grand design”, but the Borneo territories were not.
According to an opinion article in the Daily Express dated 16th February 2020, "...As for the oil in Sarawak territory, the British were prepared to surrender that to the new federation under control of Malaya. Sir Anthony Abell, then Governor of Sarawak, in April 1956 observed in a communication to the Colonial Office that “the politicians in both Malaya and Singapore were showing considerable interest in the Borneo territories “including its empty spaces, its potential wealth, and its oil”.
This was even before Malayan independence.
The British kept Sarawakians & Sabahans blissfully unaware of this considerable interest by the Malayans and the Singaporeans.
While the Sarawak delegations may not have been aware of the negotiations going on behind the scenes between Malaya and Brunei prior to MA63, it is clear from historical records that the Malayans insisted from the start that Brunei’s oil revenues would pass to the federal government after 10 years.
Negotiations failed when the Bruneians (the Sultan of Brunei in particular) did not want to give away their oil revenues, the main source of Brunei’s wealth.
The Malayans therefore kept completely silent about Oil & Gas in their negotiations with Sarawak & Sabah, fully intending to take Sarawak & Sabah by surprise, which they did, since the “Development of mineral resources, mines, mining, minerals and mineral ores, oils and oilfields; purchase, sale, import and export of minerals and mineral ores; petroleum products; regulation of labour and safety in mines and oilfields;” were already provided in the Item 8 (j) of the Federal List, 9th Schedule of the Constitution of the Federation Malaya 1957.
Sarawak & Sabah unfortunately did not give any importance to this nor even raise any query, since the entire negotiations were stage-managed by the British and the Malayans. To the deceptive British & Malayans, of course, silence meant consent.
This is partly why MA63 is actually null and void, being signed by Britain & Malaya & purported Sarawak “representatives” while Sarawak was still a colony, following the Chagos case opinion by the ICJ.
By 1966, the Malayans had enacted the Petroleum Mining Act 1966, which under section 1 (2) “shall apply throughout Malaysia but in its application to Sabah and Sarawak it shall have effect only with respect to off- shore land”. This Act was supposed to come into operation on 8th November 1969 with regard to Sarawak and Sabah.
Why only off-shore land? Because by 1955 Shell had already started marine seismic surveys and in 1957 had relinquished 75% of its land lease. Initial drilling in the Temana field had also hit first oil in 1962.
Earlier in July 1966, the Malayans had already enacted the Continental Shelf Act 1966, whereby they illegally and unconstitutionally took over the Continental Shelf that rightfully belonged to Sarawak. This gave the Malayans “all rights with respect to the exploration of the continental shelf and the exploitation of its natural resources are hereby vested in Malaysia and shall be exercisable by the Federal Government”.
To do this, they first had to get rid of Singapore and secondly, Ningkan, who by 1965 was becoming a critic of the Malayanisation policy that had supplanted what was supposed to be Borneonisation. The Malayans never really wanted Singapore in the first place, nor did they really want Sarawak & Sabah either, only Sarawak & Sabah’s Oil & Gas.
After 1966, the Malayan
-controlled federal government started collecting the royalties that were paid by Shell Sarawak, which incidentally, at 10% and later 12.5%, were more than double what Sarawak was to get later from Petronas for more than 56 years.
This was still not enough for the Malayan-
controlled federal government and by the 1970s they started to seriously think about following the Pertamina (Indonesia) production-sharing model, to do which the illegal and unconstitutional Petroleum Development Act 1974 (PDA74) was enacted that vested the entire ownership of all petroleum resources within Malaysia with Petronas.
So finally in 1976, Sarawak and Sabah thus “lost” complete ownership of our Oil & Gas, even if it was done illegally and unconstitutionally. Neither Sarawak nor Sabah have ever challenged PDA74 in court.
In this way, instead of 10-12.5% as previously, Sarawak received a cash payment of 5% (based on crude oil or raw gas prices). The other 5% went to the federal government, who as the sole shareholder of Petronas, also got additional returns in the form of dividends and corporate tax, petroleum income tax and export duties. Altogether Petronas/the federal government received 92% of total net petroleum revenues, with approximately 6.5-7% going to the petroleum contractors such as Shell, leaving 1-1.5% to Sarawak.
Has all been lost forever, or is it still possible for Sarawak to claw back the ownership of its own Oil & Gas resources from Malayan control and domination?
That is a question that can only be answered by the people and the government of Sarawak.
Clawing back our property from the hands of thieves is not easy and they will of course resist to the bitter end.
The Sarawak government has made a good start with the formation of Petros and the imposition of SST on petroleum products. Revenue derived from petroleum products alone according to Sarawak Premier has reached RM8.52 billion to date, a significant amount, in view of the fact that the Federal budget still doesn’t give Sarawak a commensurate share based on Sarawak’s contribution to the national economy via our Oil & Gas revenues.
The Federal government seems to think Petronas is the golden goose, when it is in fact Sarawak (and also Sabah). Yet they don’t feed the golden goose properly while stealing all the eggs.
The Sarawak govt and Petros have taken the correct step of regaining control of Sarawak’s onshore petroleum assets. Next must be regaining full
control of Sarawak’s offshore petroleum assets, while Oil & Gas still remain relevant and while we develop new sources of renewable energy.
We are still talking here of potential revenues to Sarawak amounting not to tens of billions of ringgit but hundreds of billions of ringgit that can raise the living standards of all Sarawakians, especially those that have so far been marginalised and have not had proper access to development and socio-economic opportunities for advancement.
Between 1976 and 2017, the value of crude Oil and raw Gas production exceeded 660 billion ringgit, out of which Sarawak only saw 33 billion ringgit in royalty, amounting to an average of 805 million ringgit per year.
By now, the figure should have reached more than 1 trillion ringgit, with value added from processing of about 2 trillion ringgit, just from Sarawak alone. This is what Sarawak has lost over the last 46 years.
It is largely from Sarawak’s Oil & Gas revenues that the Malayans have managed to siphon off 1.9 trillion ringgit into offshore bank accounts, as revealed by the Pandora Papers. This is another subject that they will not allow to be debated in Parliament.
In trying to claw back as much Oil & Gas revenue as possible, through value added processing, Sarawak has now embarked on various initiatives involving setting up of various petrochemical and other refining plants to be able to process and utilise our own Oil & Gas resources for value added instead of being sold cheaply for fast cash, as is now being done by Petronas.
We need to enhance our domestic gas distribution facilities so that Sarawakians can also enjoy cheaper energy that we now supply overseas and subsidise in Malaya. Malaya has more than 2,000 km of natural gas pipelines and Sarawak less than 50 km. Gas subsidy to Malayan power plants, industries and consumers alone has already amounted to more than 200 billion ringgit, while Sarawak gets zero.
In order to get the full benefit of our own Oil & Gas resources, we need to regain full control and ownership of them from Petronas and Malaya. To do this we need to strengthen our regulatory capabilities and we need the political will to be tough with the Malayans, instead of constantly being pushed around and taken for a ride on our own Oil & Gas resources.
As we can see, this has been a very expensive ride that has cost us at least a couple of trillion ringgit all this while, if we had developed our own Oil & Gas resources. We just cannot afford to be taken for a ride by the Malayans anymore. They have been thinking of themselves all this while, and taken us for granted, even calling us their fixed deposit.
No more. It is now more than high time for Sarawakians to think about ourselves and our own people.
Or else, our Oil & Gas will truly be lost forever.
Yusuf Abdul Rahman Kuching 23rd July 2022
