PKR’s 100-day pledges worry Sabah BN leaders

Michael Kaung

The burgeoning influence of the opposition parties in Sabah is rattling state Barisan Nasional leaders.

TUARAN: The Sabah Barisan Nasional coalition partners are frantically looking over their shoulders as the opposition appears to be starting to make headway in its battle to wrest the state from the BN.

An alarmed senior BN leader, Bernard Dompok, has accused PKR of grabbing “pertinent issues” such as the oil royalty and 20-Point Agreement, which he said the ruling coalition component parties in Sabah have been fighting for all this while.

According to a political observer, the fact that Upko president Dompok has launched an attack on PKR’s “Buku Jingga” (Orange Book) reveals their discomfort.

“What PKR is picking up is from ordinary people like us. The established BN parties are afraid of this as they have failed to make headway despite being in government,” he said.

Dompok cemented this view of his party’s helplessness when he said BN component parties have been consistently raising the issues flagged in the Orange Book and presenting it to the government.

“Of course they (the opposition) pick up because they think it is good material for them,” he said when commenting on the “Buku Jingga Sabah” launched by PKR president Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail during the party’s state-level convention in Kinarut last Saturday.

The Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister pointed out that ideas that were picked up by the opposition parties were already being articulated by the present BN component parties such as the oil and gas issue in Sabah.

“These are things that we have taken up and decisions have been taken in as far as the oil and gas is concerned.

“There is a standing Cabinet decision that no gas in Sabah will be exported to foreign countries as long as the state can use it and now it is up to the state government to try and utilise it.

“So this is already a done deal. Of course the opposition parties are picking it up because they have become popular issues, but the government has made a decision already,” he said.

Promise of an oil company

Wan Azizah when launching the book said that Pakatan Rakyat will set up an oil and gas company in Sabah called PetroSabah and it would be owned by the people of the state with an initial capital of RM1 billion.

The opposition party promised to create an international conglomerate to provide jobs and to develop Sabahan expertise in the oil and gas industry capable of competing in the international market.

The Orange Book contains, among others, pledges by the Pakatan Rakyat government in its first 100 days in office should it form the federal government after the impending 13th general election.

“We are launching a special edition of the Orange Book just for Sabah because the people here have a different need compared to the peninsular.

“We are promising 10 reformations for Sabah within 100 days after Pakatan gets control of Putrajaya,” she had said.

Apart from an oil company, the Orange Book also contains Pakatan’s promise to set up a heritage fund called Tabung Warisan Sabah with an initial capital of RM1 billion from the oil and gas royalty to implement continued programmes to eradicate hardcore poor in Sabah by giving assistance to poor Sabahans who are earning below RM1,500 in household income.

“We will also be bringing up a motion to the state assembly to demand for Sabahan rights to Block L and Block M that had been seized from the people and at the same time frame (within 100 days), we will implement the Sabahan claim of 20 per cent of the oil and gas royalty by signing a new agreement,” Wan Azizah had reportedly said.

The other issues that the BN state government has failed to resolve are native customary rights, Sabah’s autonomous status within Malaysia and territorial claims.

Dompok, hoping to prevent the opposition winning over the hearts and minds of the electorate, said he agreed that Sabah’s oil royalty needs to be reviewed and the BN government will have to look into the matter.

“We (Upko) ourselves have already submitted our opinions on this. I did feel that there is room to look at this request and of course there are many ways of looking at the request,” he said.