The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak should act on the initiative of the Kelantan Mentri Besar Datuk Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat’s initiative and restore proper and just Federal-Kelantan state government relations based on justice and fair play to the people of Kelantan uninfluenced by party differences between the Federal and state governments – and in line with Najib’s 1Malaysia motto.

Two days ago, the Kelantan Mentri Besar and the Minister for International Trade and Industry and Kelantan Umno liaison chief, Datuk Mustapha Mohamad jointly kicked off a programme to promote tourism in Kelantan.

At the function, Mustapa said:

“We may be from different political parties, but there is no reason why we cannot come together on matters that benefit the Kelantan people.”

This is the proper and correct basis that should infuse and inform the relationship between the Federal government and all the state governments, even those which are ruled by Pakatan Rakyat state governments.

As a Malaysian, I will be the first to applaud the relationship between the Federal government and the state governments, especially those run by different political parties or coalitions, return to an even keel and healthy level as intended by the Federal Constitution and the founding fathers of the nation.

For a start, the Cabinet should on Wednesday acknowledge as a matter of principle that the Kelantan state government is owed RM1 billion in oil royalties, especially after the public admission by Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, the founding chairman of Petronas and CEO who signed the vesting deed agreement in 1974 providing for Kelantan’s entitlement to five per cent of any revenue derived from hydrocarbon deposits found on or offshore of the state.

As Razaleigh told Malaysian Insider: “If I am chairman still of Petronas, I will pay without all the fuss. And I feel all the more it should be paid because I signed the agreement! There is no two ways about it. It must be paid.”

The Petronas vesting deed agreement was approved by Tun Razak in 1974 and it is only right that the present Prime Minister should restore the true meaning of his father’s legacy, with the Federal Government paying the Kelantan State Government RM1 billion worth of oil royalties due to them since 2004.

It is important that proper Federal-State government relations be maintained, uninfluenced by political differences arising from different parties and coalitions running them – or the greatest casualty will be the Malaysian Constitution as well as the 1Malaysia concept advocated by Najib.

The problem with the five-month long Perak constitutional crisis arising from the unethical, undemocratic, illegal and unconstitutional power grab is because this important principle of proper, correct, just and fair Federal-State government relationships between the Barisan Nasional at the national level and the Pakatan Rakyat state government in Perak had been violated.

This is why the immediate dissolution of the Perak state assembly to hold general elections is paramount to restore a constitutional, correct, just and proper Federal-state government relationship in Perak.

(Speech at the lunch of Perak DAP MPs and State Assembly members at MP Steamboat Restaurant, Ipoh on Sunday, 26th July 2009 at 2 pm)