Kota Kinabalu: Warisan Vice President Datuk Junz Wong repeated his party’s willingness to cooperate with coalitions at the federal level, on condition that rights pertaining to Sabah are fulfilled.
In a series of videos posted on his Facebook, he said the first condition is the return of 20 per cent oil royalty on Sabah’s petroleum.
“The five per cent Petroleum sales tax implemented by Warisan since 2021 will fetch Sabah about RM1.2 billion for 2022.
“This means that if PH agrees to 20 per cent oil royalty and cooperates with Warisan, Sabah will gain at least an additional RM5 billion per annum.
“An additional RM5 billion per annum can resolve a lot of Sabah and Kota Kinabalu’s infrastructure issues, including flood woes,” he said in a statement. The second condition is to return powers pertaining to foreign labour system.
He explained that such powers are currently vested in the hands of the federal Home Ministry, even though the 1963 Malaysian Agreement stipulates that such powers lie in the hands of Sabah.
“We want the return of powers to hire foreign labour because Kuala Lumpur does not understand the situation in Sabah.
“They in KL have taken this power from Sabah and created a system which is expensive and also not business-friendly to Sabah. It is no good for Sabah businesses.
“Upon the return of such powers, Warisan intends to continue reforms in order to fit into the objectives of industrialising Sabah,” he said, adding that the third condition is the return of Sabah’s continental shelf.
He was referring to the control of Sabah’s waters, specifically the seabed and resources that lies beneath.
According to international laws and conventions, Sabah used to have control over resources lying within 200 nautical miles (370km) of Sabahs’s coastline.
However, such distance was drastically reduced after the Federal Government decided to take almost total control over Sabah.
“Sabah used to control everything in sea - fishing, petroleum, everything that is 200 nautical miles (370km) from land.
“But today, Sabah’s control is reduced from 200 nautical miles (370km) to merely three nautical miles (5.5km). Everything beyond three nautical miles is controlled by KL.
“So the operations of most oil rigs belonging to Petronas and so forth are now controlled by the Federal Government.
“This results in KL prioritising KL people, KL expertise and KL companies in the oil and gas industry and fisheries industry.
“Sabahans are short-changed even though this industry is actually Sabah’s rights. Upon the return of such rights, Petronas and all other companies who wish to operate must seek the approval of Sabah.
“We in Sabah can impose conditions such as prioritising Sabah’s workforce, expertise, and companies, etc.,” he reasoned.
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