Musa joins oil royalty debate

(The Malaysian Insider) - Former Deputy Prime Minister Tun Musa Hitam appeared last night to back Kelantan’s oil royalty claims, when he said that the state government should be allowed to manage federal funds whether they are called oil royalties or goodwill payments.

He said such funds should be paid directly to the state government in accordance with the law and should not be channelled through special committees.

In an interview with Astro Awani tonight, Musa said the funds must be paid to the state government because the aim of such payments was for the public’s benefit.

“Whether it is goodwill payments or oil royalty that is not important. As long as they use it for development for the people.

“We should establish a system where we can monitor the funds even if the powers are given to the state government,” he said.

Musa’s comments come amid his Umno colleague Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah’s campaign to back Kelantan’s oil royalty claim.

Putrajaya is adamant that it will not pay one sen of oil royalty to Kelantan for oil and gas extracted in a shared production block off its waters.

Instead the government will pay out RM20 million to the Kelantanese people via federal agencies in what it calls a goodwill payment, similar to the mechanism it used in Terengganu between 1999 and 2009 when PAS was in power.

Tengku Razaleigh also warned Umno-Barisan Nasional (BN) today that the ruling coalition could lose crucial votes in the next general election if the federal government continued to deny Kelantan’s oil royalty claims.

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Comments (15) Add Comment

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written by Angela Ooi, March 20, 2010 06:07:35

Thank you Tan Sri for taking this stand like a MAN. Where are the others? If you pray 5 times a day and 5 times a day being close to God will impel anyone that dUMNO is being unjust and cruel to Kelantanese!!
Remember GOD loves goodness and truth.

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written by Kingsley, March 20, 2010 02:17:16

Wait for the Federal government to flip-flp on this policy. It will surely come. smilies/wink.gif

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written by asherand, March 20, 2010 01:55:02

I'm glad Musa has finally come out of hibernation and made a statement to support the people of Kelantan. However, I believe it cannot be called anything but an oil royalty. A goodwill payment is an act of charity. An oil royalty is an obligation, a debt if not paid, a rightful claim on the federal government that really has no choice but to pay it when due and no say on what the state does with it. Kelantan must not accept a watered down solution.

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written by Aduh, March 20, 2010 01:00:09

najib pengecut dan tak berprinsip. Kau berani ambil tindakan disiplin hanya.terhadap kucing kurap sahaja, walaupun atas kesalahan yang kecil. Sekarang kenapa membisu. ??? Tidakkah kau dinobatkan sebagai pm kucing kurap ???.

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written by NanoNano, March 20, 2010 00:47:59

Now Musa Hitam is jumping on Ku Li's bandwagon. And maybe more will follow? Amno, lei sei loh (Amno, habis lah you)!

Makes me think though? Could the man Bul mentioned be Ku Li or Musa?

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written by ctlyn, March 20, 2010 00:16:23

shouldn't listen to Musa

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written by AlwaysFair, March 19, 2010 23:50:27

Since time immemorial the Bn govt use development funds to twist the arms of the voters. The chinese kept MCA in power mainly because of fear of racial clash and fear of being deprived of funds to develop basic amenities like roads, water supply etc.

They always withhold funds from opposition states to punish the people so that they are forced to vote for BN. It is obvious what they are doing to Kelatan and Trengganu is the same bully tactics.

If they give oil royalty to kelantan they may never take back kelantan because the govt there who is clean will make sure all the kelantanese prosper, so how can BN ever hope to take it back? They resort to "compassion payment" in order they can channel funds to their own connections who will never use the funds for the people because they would not want the people who are anti-BN to enjoy anything even if they are Malays just because they are in opposition camp. They prefer to spend the money to enrich their cronies only. They also probably use such tactic to wrest back control of Trengganu.

So long you are in opposition camp the govt. will never allow you to enjoy the benefits even though you are a malay .

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written by Alice, March 19, 2010 23:02:48

All good men should rise and defend Malaysia from corrupt,greedy politicians who are plundering the nations wealth for their own benefit. Just look at their lifestyle and do you believe that it is an Islamic way of life? Hypocrites! Since Islam is the official religion of the country, all good muslims should expose all the evil deeds of bad muslims.A spiritual cleansing is so necessary to get rid of all evil.

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written by GHT, March 19, 2010 22:50:51

UMNO's leaderships from DM onwards to AB and Najib are total ignorant of the word 'fair-play'. They expect others to play fair but they do not have to. This being reflected on why 1Malaysia are poorly being understood and rejected by fair-minded Malaysians as being just a slogan but nothing more..

50 over years of power breeds contempt, culminated with low expectation from the public that the Judiciary, AG office, Police including MACC and various public offices/ policies practice fairness.

But there again there are still good men and righteous people around. Tengku Razaleigh and now Tun Musa Hitam joining him, stood tall above the UMNO herds. I am sure there are more brave and fair minded UMNO leaders around who would like to be counted in joining Tengku Razaleigh in position of correctness and in saving UMNO

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written by ibabonma, March 19, 2010 22:14:24

Why give goodwill payments to Kelantan and Terengganu but not to, say, Perak or Perlis. Those rascals think we are stupid and very much similar to Umno members with brain made of wood.

You know how Umno brain works? Read this.

"Kami orang dacing. Semua orang pakai dacing, Melayu, Cina dan India. Lambang dacing adalah satu Malaysia."

(We are the weighing apparatus (BN party symbol) supporters. Everybody uses them, Malays, Chinese and Indians. BN symbol is 1 Malaysia."

Not only they are ignorant of 1 Malaysia, I myself don't understand what is this animal. All I know 1 Malaysia is similar to that of 1 Israel. I got the feelying Najib is a copycat.

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written by Stupid me, March 19, 2010 21:44:50

What about the current Advisor to Petronas, whoever is now getting gaji buta and other buta fringe benefits. Or has he suddenly gone mute.

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written by NSTPravda, March 19, 2010 21:40:46

At last someone who was there is speaking out. A theft by any name is a theft. When the final accounting is done, there is no prize for guessing whose names will loom large in the thievery and these people are trying to cover their tracks while others are still stealing the oil ringgits. It's time to put a stop to these before the oil and the benefits are drained dry. Al-UMNOdollarlah!

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written by Apek, March 19, 2010 21:23:04

It is morally wrong to starve the Kelantanese people of funds by technical jargon especially when the government has lost its entire moral mandate when it had itself breached all rules and norms of responsible and limited government. Instead of gaining the moral upper ground as was intended by the full page advertorial, the project had backfired to cast the government as a bias institution manned by childish persons. Give to the Kelantanese what is owed to them. Stop the wastage in Terengganu and free the DUN's from Putrajaya's grip. Hand in hand with an enlightened economic proposal the people of Malaysia would push Malaysia to the next level of development.

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written by Better My, March 19, 2010 20:20:21

Oil roaylty is not the only issue confronting Malaysia today.

There are other more important issues. So please speak up on the whole range of otehr issues for Malaysia. Otherwise, your constant oil issue that you raise often will be viewed with suspicion of your motives.

ISA victims, inlcude many Malay.
We have stopped listening to you. For Malaysia.