No blame game but best to work together for Sarawakians, says Sebastian Ting

suppadmin | October 22, 2020

YB Baru Bian must have run out of political ideas to woo voters thus he needs to come forward to attempt to discredit SUPP’s convention resolution of setting up a Sarawakian Sovereign Fund by claiming that it was triggered by ‘election fever’, said Datuk Sebastian Ting, Piasau State Assemblyman.

Ting who is also Assistant Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture said his suggestion of setting up Sarawak Sovereign Fund in 2018 was different from the suggestion by YB See Chee How in 2014. YB See then was suggesting that the fund would be from the anticipated 20 percent increased payments in oil and gas royalty.

“There was no such increased in oil and gas royalty, not even with the promise of 20 percent of oil and gas royalty by the then PH government of 22 months. If YB Baru had done a proper checking to our DUN Hansard, he would have realized that I had spoken extensively on introducing Sarawak Sovereign Fund similar to the one in Norway to ensure future generations to continue benefitting from the oil and gas revenues. I said it during my debate for the Oil Mining (Amendment) Ordinance 2018 on July 10th 2018 and the debate for the TYT opening speech on July 13th 2018. It was never due to any election fever but our primary and genuine concern for the welfare of Sarawakians, our children and future generations, ” he added.

From the records of the Hansard, Ting pointed out that he, Baru Bian was present on both days when he spoke about setting up the Sarawak Sovereign Fund. Therefore it would be amazing if YB Baru now wishes to claim that he does not know about my proposal then, unless, he was not paying attention in DUN or he was not in the DUN at that material time.

Nevertheless, he added, the Sarawak Sovereign Fund that SUPP suggested comes from the revenue surplus in implementing our Oil Mining Ordinance 1958 and the participation of Petros into mining and Production Sharing Agreements with Petronas and other major industry players. Now with the implementation of Sarawak State Sales Tax of 5% on exported petroleum products, we will have more surplus to invest into the Sarawak Sovereign Fund.

Ting reckoned that if Baru is truly concerned of the welbeing of our Sarawakians, he should welcome any people-friendly ideas rather than opposing or discredit the idea just to score some political points against his political opponent. Is it because of his own ‘political fever ‘?

“While we can look at the examples of the failure of PH government, YB Baru, his then Party PKR and DAP had indeed promised the increase the 5% petroleum royalty to 20% petroleum royalty and 50% of all taxes collected in Sarawak would be given to the people of Sarawak, and paid to the Sarawak Government coffer, without the need to beg and of course No More Negotiation proud statement. All these still ring loudly in the ears of Sarawak people and their videos are there to see. To forget all these promises would be impossible. It is therefore unbelievable that YB Baru would shoot down SUPP’s good intentions of suggesting of setting up a Sarawakian Sovereign Fund. Instead YB Baru should support our proposal, he stated.

Afterall, Ting said, if we are truly Sarawakians we should all be united to fight for the best for Sarawak and the interest of all our people should or must take priority over political interests. So let us all Unite to Achieve our Sarawak Dream…. Prosperous and Strong Sarawak.