Gas : Royalty or Wang Ehsan

I agree that the Federal Government should not pay to the State Government as royalty because of the distance of the gas production and drilling found 150miles nautical away from Kelantan off-shore. Kelantan state government urge Petronas for royalty payment involved 5 percent from revenue of gas. Gas production and drilling situated at location PM301 and close to Malaysia-Thai Joint Ventures area. The Federal Government had referred to the Petroleum Development Act (PDA) 1974, according to PDA; royalty shall be referred as the cash payment represent to 5 percent to the state government if mines, petroleum or gas drill out within 3miles nautical off-shore. Kelantan state government claimed PDA 1974 doesn’t quote exactly about Wang Ehsan and referred to case of Sabah and Sarawak as guide line. The Kelantan Menteri Besar said he wants to distribute all money to rakyat Kelantan. Actually MB didn’t understand the pre-requisite of Sabah and Sarawak to joint Malaysia in 1963.They joint as a state of Malaysia with additional conditional whereby the royalty 5 percent of petroleum and gas, the Federal Government had accepted the terms and entered as a part of agreement.

Obviously, Sabah and Sarawak are except from PDA 1974 for the royalty payment. So Kelantan MB hadn’t refered to the clause in PDA 1974 but he use logical theory without concern to the law. The disputed matter is only Royalty and “Wang Ehsan”. State Government now want the payment in royalty term instead of Wang Ehsan. In this case, wang ehsan will channel to the federal agency and state government had no interest of it. In view of political mileage, state government will lose everything.

The obligations of rules and accountabilities to the stakeholder are most important .The Federal Government responsible to Public Account Committee (PAC) and answerable to the Parliament Members. People in Kelantan want their benefits from Wang Ehsan and they don’t care which agency will appointed as receiver. They want infrastructures such as education, health, water supply, road and welfare.

Now the people confuse between two different issues, first issue is distance to the gas drilling plant and second is who the right agency to receive payment is. We suggest all the issues to bring to the court. Let judgement made in the court. Once it go to court, no parties can discuss or open to the public or it cannot be written in medias. The implication of bringing the case to the court is the people of Kelantan will not receive any single cent until the court make final judgement. The question is who is the looser? Another problem is timing factor. How long it take to solve the dispute? Does the court refer to the PDA 1974? How many parties will involve in order making a solution? Measurement must be made to ensure the distance.

If the Federal Government had intension to distribute the payment to Kelantanese and yet the amount is 5 percent, why State Government still refused to cooperate with federal agency. The federal agency Jabatan Pembangunan Persekutuan Kelantan(JPPK)already announced that they want to invite state government officers to joint as committee members to monitor the expenditures. In this case, State Government should not make political agendas as the priority and put the people of Kelantan in trouble.