Former Prime Minister Tun Abdullah should explain whether he had signed off US$100 billion (RM320 billion) worth of oil rights to resolve Brunei’s claims to Limbang a month before he stepped down as Prime Minister in March last year and why.
The disclosure by former Prime Minister, Tun Mahathir that there had been such a deal is most shocking and even outrageous, demonstrating how gravely good governance had deteriorated after Merdeka in 1957, as this is something Abdullah’s predecessors as Prime Ministers, Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tun Razak, Tun Hussein and even Tun Mahathir himself, would not have done without proper consent of Cabinet, Parliament and the Malaysian people.
Malaysians would have continued to be kept in the dark of this deal if not for Mahathir’s latest blog entry “Malaysia’s Generosity” yesterday where he disclosed that Malaysia had lost a substantial oil producing offshore area in the South China Sea, namely Block L and Block M.
Mahathir wrote:
“ Block L and Block M had been claimed by Malaysia based on historical facts. Accordingly, Petronas entered into a production sharing contract with Murphy Oil to start drilling to produce oil. It is estimated that the reserves amounted to almost 1 billion barrels.
“ Abdullah Badawi negotiated with the Sultan to get back Limbang in Sarawak. In return he agreed to surrender the two blocks to Brunei. No Petronas representatives were present, only foreign office staff and the foreign affairs adviser to the PM.
“ As we all know Abdullah triumphantly announced that he had settled the Limbang claim with Brunei. No mention was made of the two blocks.
“ Brunei disclaimed that they had agreed to give up Limbang. The foreign office and Abdullah did not rebut Brunei’s statement.
“Now it is made clear that the two blocks are no longer a part of Malaysia.
“ Abdullah has caused Malaysia to lose at least US100 billion dollars (about RM320 billion) of Malaysia’s oil in this agreement.”
The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak should explain the true situation – whether Abdullah had signed off US$100 billion (RM320 billion) worth of oil rights to resolve Brunei’s claims to Limbang, that Brunei’s claims to Limbang remains unaffected despite Malaysia losing these two blocks of offshore oil areas, and even more important, why the Abdullah Cabinet at the time of which he was Deputy Prime Minister had agreed to such unilateral and arbitrary sell-out of the country’s sovereign rights.
#1 by cemerlang on Sunday, 2 May 2010 - 2:07 pm
We are living in the 21st century and yet behaving like our ancestors in the 1st century. There is a need for the international court to settle all territory disputes around the world. It can only be a black area belong to one country and a white area belonging to another country. There should not be any grey areas being fought by more than one country. It looks like there are so many grey areas around the world that look like gambling tables for the gamblers to win, loose and gamble on. Is this done on purpose just for the fun of it ? The United Nation should see to all this. The days when men were truely peaceful are gone. Nowadays men are greedy. Therefore there must some form of legal understanding so that the one who is bullied have the means to fight back. Nah. Second thought. Let us have a one world order. Now who said that before ? Just imagine after all these years, we are given the impression that somehow Malaysia is not truely made up of 14 genuine states and that somehow some of her land does not belong to her. Thanks for educating me. Then don’t complain about Limbang to the serahawak government. Do not complain about Limbang to the Malaysia government. All Limbang people should go back to the Sultan of Brunei.
#2 by Loh on Sunday, 2 May 2010 - 6:53 pm
The pattern is clear. Just before Mamakthir stepped down, he approved the crooked bridge so that Malaysia would be in conflict with Singapore. AAB made the government paid hundreds of million RM as compensation to the crony, and stopped the crooked bridge. AAB was criticized for being weak for not pursuing the senseless bridge building.
Petronas might not have the right to explore the oil reserve under what Brunei called CA1 and CA2. Having found substantial oil reserve off the coast of Brunei, an agreement was made with Murphy Oil as if that two blocks belong to Malaysia, in 2003. There had not been any oil produced from the two blocks, and it seems that the blame now should also be directed to AAB. Why should AAB agree that Brunei has the right to the two blocks if Malaysia had the undisputed right to them. Can we be so naive as to believe that AAB had agreed to a service agreement with Brunei to have the ownership of the two blocks transferred to Brunei? Some said that the matter should be resolved by the international court in Hague. That is true when Malaysia has a case. The only person who said the two blocks belong to malaysia was Mamakthir who in 2003 created the dispute between Brunei and Malaysia. I suppose he expected AAB to bully Brunei and go to war. It is of course good to have own the two blocks, if Brunei is part of Malaysia. It makes no sense to rob Brunei of the oil reserve.