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
