Statement by Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah

Statement by Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah

I think Umno should apply this gag order properly and, from today onwards, also stop altogether talking about Allaryaham Tun Razak (Hussein). Umno Baru would consider him a traitor.

For it was he who ordered me to design the Petroleum Development Act in such a way that the Malay heartland states of Kelantan, Terengganu, Johor and especially his beloved Pahang, would benefit directly from offshore oil beyond three nautical miles through the mechanism of 5 per cent cash payments made directly to the state consolidated fund. What a troublemaker he was.

It is this same payment, that Umno Baru insists, through every government channel, that Kelantan and Terengganu have no right to receive, on the grounds that the oil is found beyond 3 nautical miles offshore.

Naively, Tun Razak did not forsee that Umno Baru would have better uses for this money than the impoverished Malay folk of the East Coast.

More than RM20 billion has been paid out in Terengganu’s name over the years, yet the people of Terengganu remain impoverished because the money has not gone to them.

They are expected to console themselves watching millionaires frolic in yachts and admiring a crystal mosque they cannot pray in.

We should also put a gag order on speaking about the late Hussein Onn. He, at least, was a man of principle, and an absolute enemy of corruption and the abuse of power. He was such a threat to Umno Baru that he, like the late Tunku Abdul Rahman, was shut out from it, and died outside the party.

Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah
Member of Parliament, Gua Musang