No U-turn on oil royalty, says DPM
TUARAN: The Pakatan Harapan (PH) government will not make a U-turn on its 14th general election (GE14) manifesto promise to return 20 percent of oil revenue to producing states, said Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Wan Azizah Wan Ismail.
Wan Azizah, who is also PH president, assured that the coalition remains committed to the pledge but would refer the matter back to Prime Minister and PH chairman Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
She said fulfillment of the 20% oil royalty promise in PH’s manifesto will depend on the country’s finances.
“I (will) refer back to the Prime Minister because it is in our manifesto. But we have to think of the coffers of the country and then see how we can fulfill it properly, not make empty promises,” she said.
“There is no U-turn, we are committed because it is in our manifesto but how to pay it is something else,” reiterated Wan Azizah after officiating at the ‘Reject Pornography as a Family’ (SToP) seminar at Kent Teachers Training Institute (Pengajian Guru (IPG) Kent) campus here yesterday.
Earlier this week, Mahathir had confirmed PH’s promise to provide every petroleum producing state with 20% of the oil royalties, but they will be based on profits and not revenue.
This is not what the PH manifesto for GE14 stated, as the manifesto pledged to give 20% oil royalty based on revenue.
Chief Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal had also said he would be seeking a clarification from the Prime Minister on the statement.
The 20% oil royalty is what Sabah and Sarawak were to get according to the Malaysia Agreement 1963.
Sabah now is only getting 5% of the oil royalty from Petronas.
Meanwhile, Wan Azizah, who is also the Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) president, said the party will use the party’s logo to battle in the Sungai Kandis by-election.
Since the PKR logo had been used during the recent GE14, she said it would be ‘samalah’ (the same) for this time around too.
The by-election has been necessitated after PKR assemblyman Mat Shuhaimi Shafiei passed from lymphoma cancer on July 2. Polling for the by-election is on August 4.