Yong: Harris should have just admitted his mistake

KOTA KINABALU - Former Chief Minister of Sabah Tan Sri Harris Mohd Salleh should just admit his mistake when signing away Sabah’s oil rights in perpetuity, and not blame Sabah MPs, said SAPP President Datuk Seri Yong Teck Lee.

Yong  who himself was a former Chief Minister of Sabah said this while commenting on the remark made by Harris during a public forum on the Formation of Malaysia – The  Untold Story, organised by the Sabah Society here, recently.

It was reported that Harris had said that Sabah MPs should have voiced out against the 5% oil royalty before the agreement was signed 30 years ago.

“As a matter of fact, it was impossible for Sabah MPs to have voiced objection to the oil agreement because the matter was never tabled in Parliament before the oil agreement was signed,” Yong pointed out in a response issued here today.

He further noted that even the Sabah Legislative Assembly which met on June 14, eight days after the June 6 air crash that killed the then Chief Minister and senior cabinet ministers, was not given the opportunity to debate the oil agreement, before the agreement was signed in Kuala Lumpur very soon after that Legislative Assembly sitting.

Yong (right) further said Harris seemed to attribute “UMNO pressure” as the underlying reason or background to the signing away of Sabah’s oil rights in perpetuity to Petronas in June 1976.

“Tan Sri Harris should simply admit his mistake and not blame the Sabah MPs or Sabah assemblymen of the era.

“Instead, it is more important for our veterans and our younger generation of Sabahans to work towards the restoration of Sabah’s rightful position as promised in the Malaysia Agreement 1963, The Inter-Governmental Committee Report 1962 and the United Nations Cobbold Commission of Enquiry Report 1962,” he stressed.

On 18 November 2011, Harris informed the High Court here that he had signed the five per cent oil royalty agreement between the State government and Petronas after he was sworn in as the Chief Minister following the death of his predecessor and following the advice of the then state Attorney-General that the agreement was proper.

He also said that as far as he could remember, the agreement was signed on the evening of June 6, 1976 or the next day. Harris however said he was not sure whether or not the five per cent oil royalty was already fixed by statute.

Borneo Insider