By Queville To
KOTA KINABALU: Sabah Progressive Party president Yong Teck Lee has claimed that the ceding of Sabah’s oil-rich territories in Blocks L and M to Brunei was the price that the state had to pay for being the “fixed deposit” of the Barisan Nasional.
Putting the blame squarely on Umno, he said: “It seems that Sarawak, which has no Umno in their state, is doing far better than Sabah which ironically is dominated by Umno.
“It is also time for the federal officials to stop insulting the intelligence of Malaysians in Sabah for thinking that we can be easily taken in by their flimsy arguments,” said Yong.
The former Sabah chief minister also accused the BN-led federal government of trying to justify an illegal and unconstitutional act in the ceding the territory to Brunei.
“Our Foreign Minister Anifah Aman also tried to justify the loss of Sabah’s three million acres in Blocks L and M by relying on the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea 1982 (UNCLOS 1982) which gave the areas to Brunei.
“If UNCLOS 1982 is so clear cut that the three million acres belong to Brunei, then why did Malaysia award the same area to an oil company (Murphy Oil) in January 2003?” he asked.
The explanation by the foreign ministry that Petronas has been given commercial rights to operate oil Blocks J and K in Brunei under commercial arrangement CA1 and CA2 (also known as Blocks L and M in Malaysia) has exposed the fact that the federal government has sacrificed Sabah’s rights and interests, he said.
“The ministry is trying to explain an illegal and unconstitutional act. Does the ministry think the people have forgotten that the previous month (December 2002), Malaysia had just won the Sipadan/Ligitan case at the International Court of Justice?
“Malaysia was already an expert on international law on territorial disputes. Surely our government and Petronas lawyers were already convinced about the Malaysian status of Block L and M before awarding them to Murphy Oil.
“Were our foreign ministry officials, our government’s lawyers, our mapping department, Petronas and other agencies so incompetent not to have known whether the areas were within Malaysian or Brunei territory?” Yong asked.
The assertion that the key elements of the Exchange of Letters in Brunei on March 16, 2009 between Malaysia and Brunei was the delimitation of maritime boundaries, maritime access, commercial arrangement for oil and gas and land boundaries was also questioned by the former chief minister.
Yong said the then prime minister (Abdullah Ahmad Badawi) did not mention anything about oil and gas and the loss of maritime territories when he proclaimed that Brunei had agreed to drop their claim on Limbang after the Exchange of Letters on March 16, 2009 between him and the Sultan of Brunei.
In fact, immediately after Abdullah’s declaration that Brunei had dropped their claim on Limbang, the Brunei Second Foreign Minister issued a vehement denial that Brunei had dropped their claim on Limbang.
Said Yong: “There was no response from Malaysia. So, at the time, I thought that it was the Bruneians who had got themselves a bad deal. I was doubtful that Malaysia would make such a mistake in bilateral negotiations.
"As we now know, our then prime minister had told only half the truth by disclosing the Limbang issue but not the loss of the oil blocks. Instead of disclosing the loss of our maritime territories, the then prime minister chose to declare only that Brunei has dropped its claim on Limbang.
Musa denies loss of territory
Meanwhile Sabah Chief Minister Musa Aman has denied ceding any state territory to Brunei.
He said this after chairing the second state security committee meeting yesterday.
He said the state government had been briefed about the matter by Wisma Putra twice, but he did not say when the meetings took place.
Local media also quoted him as saying that the state attorney-general had advised that no Sabah areas had been ceded.
He said that there was no need to bring the issue to the state assembly given that no territory had been surrendered as has been demanded by state opposition leaders.
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