PARTI Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu) accused former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak of trying to absolve himself from any blame over reports that heirs of the Sulu Sultanate have seized assets belonging to Petronas a few days ago.
“This is a classic example on how one plays politics using the perception game instead of educating the masses on the issue at hand.
“The truth is, Najib must also be blamed for the fiasco, but knowing him, he will continue being thick-skinned and try to fool as many people as possible,” said its election strategist Badrul Hisham Shaharin, popularly known as Chegubard, in a Facebook post.
On July 12, two of Petronas’ subsidiaries in Azerbaijan were reported to have been seized by court bailiffs after an arbitration court in France ruled in March last year that Malaysia has to pay a whopping RM62.59 bil in compensation to descendants of the Sulu Sultanate.
According to Financial Times, it was said that the court officers have seized Petronas’ Luxembourg-registered subsidiaries, Petronas Azerbaijan (Shah Deniz) and Petronas South Caucasus.
The UK-based daily added that the holding companies seized are estimated to be worth more than RM8.87 bil.
However, it is to note that Petronas has clarified that the assets mentioned had been divested some time back and its proceeds has been repatriated accordingly.
Hurling brickbats at Najib, Badrul accused the former of conveniently ignoring Petronas’ statement informing the public of the assets having been divested, which means they are no longer owned by Malaysia.
“For this, we must appreciate Petronas’ foresight in handling business risks as opposed to our political leaders,” he noted.
M’sia was informed of arbitration in 2017
However, Badrul said that one should not ignore the demands made by the heirs of the Sulu Sultanate as Malaysia’s assets in foreign countries could be at risk being seized due to the ruling made by Spanish arbitrator, Gonzalo Stampa last year.
While he acknowledged that the previous Pakatan Harapan Government had made mistakes in dealing with the issue, Badrul reminded the people of Najib’s hand on the matter too.
“The thing is, Najib’s administration was informed of the decision by the heirs to the Sulu Sultanate to take their case for arbitration in 2017 itself. The matter is mentioned in the arbitration papers dated Feb 28, 2022.
“In fact, an Opposition politician even produced the 124-page arbitration documents online for everyone to see.
“Page 23 clearly mentions that the Malaysian High Commission in Madrid, Spain was informed of it on Nov 2, 2017,” Badrul quipped. – July 16, 2022
