00:00Former Sarawak Chief Justice Jesse Fong was forced not to change the facts of history by claiming that Sarawak was never referred to in connection with the approval of the Petroleum Advancement Act 1974.
00:13Former Minister of Law Zaid Ibrahim told FMT that the claim that Sarawak did not know about the Act was not based on the fact that Sarawak's Chief Minister at the time, Abdul Rahman Yaqub, was deeply involved.
00:27Zaid said that Fong's comment was a serious claim and questioned why such a claim was only issued now after five decades.
00:36Dayat Daily reported yesterday that Fong said that the law was secretly passed by the Minister of Finance at the time, Tengku Razali Hamzah and his allies in accordance with the direction of the Prime Minister at the time, Abdul Razak Hussein, before the General Election in 1974.
00:52According to Fong, Sarawak was faced with a fake complaint and was forced to sign an agreement to receive a 5% cash payment to put all its petroleum resources under Petronas.
01:03Tengku Razali previously said in an interview with FMT that Abdul Rahman played an important role in the 144 Act which gave Petronas the right to export oil and gas reserves throughout Malaysia, although the export rights were specialised for countries.
01:22He was the one who wanted this idea. Then I was asked to see how best we handle this situation. And in consultation with Rahman, with his cabinet. But Rahman is a very forceful leader of Sarawak. You don't play around with him.
01:45He's also a lawyer. And he is aware of what Sarawak wants. And I think we respected all that. And that went into Petronas based on the views of Rahman.
02:07Zaid said there was no reason for Tengku Razali to lie about the case and urged Fong not to try to change the facts of history.
02:15I don't benefit anything by not telling the truth.
