‘No reason to pay’: Reject RM1.8 bln payment to Putrajaya for Bintulu Port, PBK tells S’wak govt

KUCHING (Feb 5): Parti Bumi Kenyalang (PBK) has urged the Sarawak government to reject the RM1.8 billion payment demanded by the federal government for the return of Bintulu Port, saying there is no justification for the state to pay.

PBK president Voon Lee Shan argued the federal government has already profited immensely from Sarawak’s resources, including oil and gas, territorial seas, land, and port facilities.

He said profits earned over decades are estimated to run into trillions of ringgit and therefore there is no justification for Putrajaya to demand any more money from Sarawak.

“Instead, the federal government should compensate Sarawak,” he told a press conference at his office here today.

Voon, a lawyer and former assemblyman, questioned the basis of the lump-sum payment, pointing out that there was no record of any compensation being paid to Sarawak when the port was taken over by the federal government decades ago.

“They took Bintulu Port, but there is no record that they paid Sarawak anything – not even a single sen. Now Sarawak is being asked to pay RM1.8 billion in one lump sum. This is completely unreasonable,” he said.

Voon said the federal government must provide a full public breakdown of how the RM1.8 billion figure was derived, stressing that transparency was essential given the scale of the payment and its impact on Sarawak’s finances.

He also suggested that if Sarawak were forced to make any payment, it should be offset against the substantial financial benefits the federal government had already gained from Sarawak’s resources.

According to Voon, the long-standing extraction of Sarawak’s wealth without fair returns has contributed to the state’s slower pace of development compared to Peninsular Malaysia.

“This is why Sarawak still lacks sufficient funds for development. Rural areas remain underdeveloped, and even towns like Kuching cannot match the rapid progress seen in Kuala Lumpur and major cities in West Malaysia,” he argued.

Voon also criticised political leadership, saying weak negotiation and advocacy had left Sarawak disadvantaged in federal-state dealings.

“Politicians must take responsibility. The Sarawak government should not agree to such a payment without a clear justification and full public disclosure,” he said.

He reiterated PBK’s firm stance that Sarawak should not pay the RM1.8 billion, adding that the Federal Government had already benefited immensely from Bintulu Port and Sarawak’s resources.

“Sarawak should not pay. There is no justification. The federal government has already gained far more than enough,” he stressed.

Also present at the press conference were several party supreme council executives namely Teo Kuang Kim, Atet Dego, Raymond Thong, Alim GA Mideh, Salim Chimie and Rangen Jamang.

According to a Bernama report yesterday, the federal government and the Sarawak state government have, in principle, agreed on a value of RM1.8 billion for the state’s acquisition of Bintulu Port.

When replying to a query from Sibu MP Oscar Ling at the Parliament, Transport Minister Anthony Loke said the federal and the Sarawak governments are now at the final stage of the process to hand over the port to the state.

He said a technical committee jointly chaired by both parties is fine-tuning the legal aspects to ensure that all obligations are fulfilled as provided under the Bintulu Port Authority (Dissolution) Act 2023 [Act 59], before the effective date of the Act is set.

“This step is important to enable the Sarawak state government to officially take over the regulation and governance of Bintulu Port.

“The federal government has also determined the payment value as well as the payment method to be adopted by the Sarawak state government for the purpose of acquiring the port,” he said.