Petronas doing what S’wak govt should have done over PDA 1974 — PH S’wak

KUCHING: Petronas is doing what the Sarawak government should have done a year ago in taking the matter on the legality of the Petroleum Development Act ( PDA) 1974 to the Federal Court.

Leaders of Pakatan Harapan ( PH) Sarawak in a statement issued yesterday said ever since Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg took over as chief minister, he has repeatedly told Sarawakians that the PDA is ‘null and void’ and thus, is irrelevant to Sarawak.

“However, to any lawyer in town, we all know that only the Federal Court has the authority to declare any law passed in Parliament to be ‘null and void’.

“A Chief Minister or even the Prime Minister has no power to declare a law passed in Parliament to be ‘null and void’. That is basic first-year law school textbook knowledge,” said the statement signed by Chong Chieng Jen of DAP Sarawak, Baru Bian of PKR Sarawak and Mohamad Fidzuan Zaidi of Amanah Sarawak.

As the chief minister, PH Sarawak said Abang Johari should not be giving Sarawakians “false hope” that the PDA is ‘ null and void’ without first seeking a court declaration that the Act is, in fact and in law, null and void.

“As such, given Abang Johari is so confident about his claim that the PDA is null and void as far as Sarawak is concerned, we have before the 14th general election ( GE14) called upon him to challenge the validity of the Act in court.

“For reasons only known to himself, Abang Johari has hitherto refused to bring the matter to court.”

The statement added that while the Sarawak government has failed to challenge the legality of the PDA in court thus far, the suit by Petronas has presented it an opportunity to prove its claim.

“However, if the court’s decision goes otherwise, we Pakatan Harapan will still honour our election manifesto pledges of giving Sarawak 20 per cent oil and gas royalties or its equivalence.”

The statement went on to say that the pledge of 20 per cent oil and gas royalty is in line with what the late Pehin Sri Adenan Satem sought in the State Legislative Assembly ( DUN) motion passed in May 2014.

It added that it was only when Abang Johari became chief minister that he suddenly went beyond the demand set by the late Adenan and started claiming that the PDA was ‘null and void’.

“Yet, Abang Johari stopped short of filing for his claim in the Federal Court.

“Once the federal Cabinet is finalised, PH Sarawak will form a Special Cabinet Committee to look into the devolution of powers and fiscal decentralisation agenda as promised in our Pakatan Harapan Manifesto.”