OIL STATES COLONISED?

THE tussle over petroleum royalty must stop. The decision to extend the royalties to people of the oil-producing states must be done on humanitarian grounds.

It should not be politically motivated.

We must not imitate the acts of Western companies during the era of colonisation.

Equipped with advanced technologies, the West had taken the natural resources of their colonised lands, taken the wealth home and developed their nations.

They progressed at the expense of the colonised nations. They robbed the indigenous people. This should not be forgotten.

Upon independence, Malaysia established a company to manage its oil and gas resources.

This was a noble and brilliant effort, a legacy that must live on for future generations.

Now, after 61 years of independence, the Federal Government, with veto power on royalty, has denied oil-producing states their share of the wealth.

The people of the land are being refused equal opportunity to progress.

Most of the oil-generated income seemed to have been used to improve and upgrade the infrastructure, buildings and technologies in the big cities.

Unfortunately, the big cities are not in the oil-producing states.

Socio-economic disparity is widening between cities and rural areas, and between developed states and less-developed oilproducing states.

Is this not the same as during the era of colonisation?

Having moved from the most developed state to now living in an oil-producing state, I cannot help but lament the living standards of the majority of the people in Terengganu.

I believe they are not stupid nor lazy, but just unlucky. They have been treated unfairly.

I hope the Federal Government will do something for oil-producing states.

After all, the 11th Malaysia Plan includes providing a fair share of oil and gas revenue to oil-producing states.

How many more documents and manifestos must be established?

How much longer must the people of the land wait for their rights to be returned?