MEDIA STATEMENT.
The statement by the Malaysian Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued on the 3rd of May 2010, helps to clarify the actual status of the two oil Blocks that have generated a great deal of concern among Malaysians in the last four days.
We now know that Blocks L and M, which we assumed belonged to Malaysia, are “situated within Brunei’s maritime areas, over which Brunei is entitled to exercise sovereign rights under the relevant provision of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea 1982(UNCLOS 1982).”
What this means, in simple language, is that under international law it is Brunei that has sovereignty over Blocks L and M, which coincide with Brunei’s Blocks J and K.
On the whole, the Exchange of Letters between former Prime Minister, Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, and the Sultan of Brunei, appears to have taken into account the interests of both countries. The establishment of a Commercial Arrangement Area (CAA) incorporating the two blocks provides for a sharing of revenues from oil and gas exploration between the two countries. The agreement also contains principles pertaining to the demarcation of maritime and land boundaries between the two countries which had remained unresolved for 20 years.
If the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had come out with a clarification as soon as the issue erupted, the Malaysian public might have reacted differently. It is a pity that neither Petronas, nor Tun Abdullah nor Prime Minister Mohd. Najib alluded to the Law of the Sea in their comments on the status of the Blocks. Former Prime Minister, Dr. Mahathir Mohamad himself, who was the first to highlight the question of our sovereign rights over the oil blocks in his blog posting, should have given due consideration to the question of international law.
Based upon Dr. Mahathir’s comment, I had criticised the ceding of our sovereign rights over oil to Brunei in a statement on the 1st of May 2010. I was wrong. I am glad that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has tried to convey the true picture.
Dr. Chandra Muzaffar,
President,
International Movement for a Just World (JUST).
Petaling Jaya.
Malaysia.
4 May 2010.