Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz Minister in the PM office ,insist that Kelantan has no right for oil royality.
Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah , Member of Parliament for Gua Musang and also from the royal family of Kelantan.
Former finance minister Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah said he would consider an offer from opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim to appoint him to head the caucus to deliberate the issue of Kelantan petroleum and liquefied gas royalties.
Tengku Razaleigh, who is Member of Parliament for Gua Musang, said he needed time to consider the offer.
"I need to follow the development first and see whether I could contribute (to the caucus) as I was involved in the setting up of Petronas, understood the agreement, and promulgated the law related to it. So I can help," he told reporters at the parliament lobby here Wednesday.
On the compassionate payment from the royalties, he said, while the people had the rights to the deposit discovered, it was the prerogative of the federal government to distribute it from the revenue collected from taxes.
Ku Li was approached by Anwar in the Parliement Lobby.
The offer came about when the veteran Umno leader met with Opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, Machang PKR MP Saifuddin Nasution, Kubang Kerian PAS MP Salahuddin Ayub, Batu MP Tian Chua at the MP's lounge in parliament.
After discussing for nearly 30 minutes, the Gua Musang MP told reporters that he would consider the offer but did not give a timeframe for an answer.
“They have proposed to form a caucus on oil because oil is a very hot subject being debated between the government and particularly the state representatives. They think that through the caucus there could be some kind of logical reasoning in order to arrive at an amicable solution to the problem," said the Kelantan prince.
“So they have decided to approach me to head the caucus. I have not given an answer. I will still consider and think about this,” said Razaleigh, popularly known as Ku Li.
Razaleigh said that he would consider the request as he was “involved in the oil business” since the formation of national oil company Petronas and the drafting of the Petroleum Development Bill. He was Petronas’s first chairman when it was formed in 1974.
“Anything that could protect the constitutional rights of the people, in particular of the states ... I will definitely not let any side down so I will try to play my part if I can in order to resolve this problem, if it is considered a problem at all,” said Ku Li.
“I think it was indeed in the vesting deed agreement that was signed between the states and Petronas that the states where oil is found on shore or off shore will benefit from such fund.
“They (Kelantan) should be given ... according to the agreement, they should get the oil money,” he added.
Razaleigh reiterated his stand that “there is no such thing as wang ehsan” or goodwill payment.
“Oil is the right of the people and it is not for the federal government to distribute as a largess. The government can distribute from the revenue collected from taxes in such line and that is the prerogative of the federal government but when it comes to this, it’s the right of the people.
“That is why I feel inclined to say my piece because I was involved from the beginning and I know the intention why we had the agreement,” he said.
When asked if prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak was wrong in calling the oil royalty a “goodwill” payment, he replied that “it is left to your interpretation.”
Najib sparked an uproar when he announced that the Barisan National (BN) federal government woukd pay Kelantan “goodwill payment” for oil extracted in its waters instead of oil royalty.
PAS lawmakers are disputing the “goodwill payment”, saying that it is akin to receiving alms instead of rightful oil royalty.
Najib told Parliament that Kelantan has no right to claim for royalties from Petronas since oil was extracted beyond the state’s waters, similar to the situation in Terengganu.
Nazri insists Kelantan not entitled to oil royalty
The Parliament was in uproar this afternoon when Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz (pic, right) poured oil on the fire raging over the Kelantan oil royalty issue by insisting that the PAS-governed state has no legal right to demand the payment.
While winding up the Supply Bill debate, the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department explained that former prime minister Tun Abdul Razak Hussein had not specifically used the term “royalty” when debating the Petroleum Development Bill in 1974 that established Petronas and agreements with the various oil-producing states to receive 5 per cent of the oil revenues.
“The agreement was made as a promise so that future administrations will respect it. It is a promise but not a right and his son, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, is respecting this promise by giving goodwill payment to Kelantan,” Nazri told the Dewan Rakyat.
The statement made by Najib’s father was recorded by the Parliament Hansard and has been used by the opposition as proof to their claims that the government had recognised the rights of Kelantan to receive royalty.
Apart from the Act, the agreement between then Petronas chairman Tun Salleh Abbas and its founder, Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, that oil-producing states be given royalty, have also been used as opposition fodder to demand payment of royalty.
However, PAS lawmakers and their allies in the Pakatan Rakyat have been frustrated for weeks now by the government’s argument that oil extracted beyond three nautical miles of state waters don’t belong to the state as the territorial definition cannot be found in laws dictating state-federal government agreement on oil royalties.
The state waters definition was first mentioned by Najib in Parliament two weeks ago when he announced that the federal government will be giving “goodwill payment” to Kelantan instead of oil royalty.
It was again used by Nazri as the government’s defence on the matter but Ipoh Timur Lim Kit Siang blasted the reply a “a distortion of facts” and a desecration of the spirit that drafted the oil regulations.
Lim and other opposition lawmakers argued that the state waters definition given by the prime minister was nowhere to be found in any of the laws governing state-federal governments agreement on the matter.
“If you want to think it’s a distortion of facts, it’s up to you. The PDA does not mention royalty,” Nazri said in his reply to Lim’s outbust.
At this point, the House had already erupted into a warzone with several opposition MPs simultaneously blasting Nazri’s reply as absurd and inconsistent.
The House later calmed after opposition MPs felt it was no longer useful to argue with the minister who in his closing remark said, “whatever it is, I insist that Kelantan will not get royalty as oil is extracted beyond its waters.”
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