我要独立 7:30 AMNATIONAL BUDGET - FOR SARAWAK A BIG FAT ZERO!
President of Sarawak Reform Party (STAR) Lina Soo calls the national budget unveiled today as a kindergarten budget lacking substance and tangibility.

As for Sarawak, it is just a Big Fat Zero, one of the reasons being Sarawak’s allocation of RM4.346 billion for development is a mere 0.23% increase from the RM4.346 billion which Sarawak received in 2017.

Instead, Soo notes that PM Tun Dr Mahathir has just announced that Petronas has money to pay federal government RM30 billion which is a special dividend attributed to the rising price from less than $50 at the beginning of the year. Sarawak produces the most expensive oil in the world which is the darling of refiners for its lightness and extremely low suphur content.

With its oil price at $77 today, and Sarawak producing as much as 800,000 boe (barrel oil equivalent) per day, this is equivalent to a production of a staggering RM250 million EVERY SINGLE DAY, Soo calculates.

Why is Sarawak not getting a sen of this ‘windfall profit’ due to the recent increased price for Sarawak oil, asks Soo. Instead RM30 billion of this extraordinary profit will go to Federal government which already receives royalty, dividend and taxes, with nothing for Sarawak who is the goose that lays the golden egg.

Sarawak alones contributes 10-12% of Malaysia’s GDP annually. At RM115 billion in 2017, an allocation of 4.3 billion is just 3% of Sarawak’s contribution. Out of the national budget of RM314billion, Sarawak is getting a mere 1.3% for all its contribution, says Soo and asks what is the benefit of remaining in a relationship where what one party has to give is all out of gross proportion to what one receives in return.

Pakatan’s sweet words of equal partners and empty promises of development for Sarawak are mere political rhetoric to hoodwink Sarawakians. When Budget time comes, we are just equal partners to Perlis or Kedah.

Soo says Sarawakians are now better aware of our interests, rights and protections enshrined in the Malaysia Agreement and our Constitutions, and sweet promises of nothings will no longer pacify Sarawakians so easily as in the past. Soo believes the people of Sarawak will be more determined now in demanding their rights and dues which had gone unheeded and been cruelly brushed aside for so long.

Soo urges the Sarawak government to take action to compel Petronas to share half of its windfall profits generated from Sarawak which had been exploited and impoverished for so long. Sarawak Reform Party shall continue to play its role effectively as critique and watchdog for Sarawak, concludes Soo.

Lina Soo
3/11/2018