Royalti petroleum: UMNO (Najib?) khianati amanat Tun Razak

Wang ehsan was used to fund the Crystal Mosque, a leaking swimming pool, a collapsed stadium, a collapsed school lab and a collapsed bus station, Gua Musang Member of Parliament Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah said that on his twitter recently.

In explaining the national significance of royalty payments issue, Razaleigh added that, on the pretext of wang ehsan, RM15bil was taken without legal basis from Petronas and paid out to unauthorized parties instead of the Terengganu government.

“In Terengganu, RM15bil was channelled to various parties between 2000 to 2009 for the Monsoon Cup, Crystal Mosque and (the collapsed) stadium (Sultan Mizan Zainal Abidin Stadium),” he said in his statement on twitter.

He added that the wang ehsan payments are quite likely illegal, and moreover, paid to the wrong party.

“Billions of wang ehsan money siphoned off illegally, not accounted for. People responsible should be investigated,” he said.

“If the agreement governing payment of royalties to states is void, so is the legal basis for existence of Petronas,” he added.

The former finance minister further stated tat the Petroleum Development Advisory Council as mandated by the Petroleum Development Act (PDA) must be convened to prevent further waste and corruption.

"Petronas has made serious mistake in paying out wang ehsan instead of royalty payments. No provision in the law for wang ehsan," he said.

He also commented those responsible for the corrupt practices not do work based on greed and to abide by the law while reminding to “let not what has happened to Terengganu's wealth recur with Kelantan” and that “the people of Kelantan are disdained”.

He further explicated that this (wang ehsan) was money the late former prime minster Tun Razak wanted for the poor and it is shameful that this money has been diverted into wang ehsan. He also recalled that it was Tun Razak who told him “in no uncertain terms to ensure that oil royalty payments would benefit the poorer Malay states."

"I feel sad and ashamed that, in this day and age, people have forgotten Tun Razak's care for the poorer states," he said. (Original story from Malaysian Digest)