PENAMPANG, 6 Nov 2008: Upko president Tan Sri Bernard Dompok said he is committed to the people of Sabah in getting the Petronas gas pipeline project from Kimanis, Sabah to Bintulu, Sarawak, scrapped.
He said the party was unhappy with the federal government’s decision to give Petronas the go-ahead to implement the project.
“I’m committed to bring this matter up and I will be talking to the cabinet on 7 Nov. I want to pursue this,” he told reporters after launching the Public Complaints Bureau’s integrated mobile complaint counter, here today.
On 1 Nov, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi confirmed that the 500km inter-state gas pipeline project would go on despite an earlier decision to scrap it.
The RM1.5 billion facility is expected to be operational in 2011.
“What is presently proposed by Petronas is merely a landing point in Kimanis and from there, a pipeline is to be built to Bintulu to facilitate the export of gas to other countries in the form of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG).
“They will put it in big tankers and export it. So, what we are saying here is, the gas can be used, firstly as a feed stock for downstream activities (in Sabah) and it can also be used to generate electricity so that we can have energy security for Sabah,” he said.
Asked about the call by Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) for Upko to leave the Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition following the party’s outburst against the project, Dompok, who is Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department said: “They are entitled to their opinions.”
“But certainly we are not beholden to any party… our clients are the people. We will cross the bridge when we come to it,” he said.
On the public complaints handling system, he said, all complaints including on human rights would be submitted to and discussed at the federal cabinet once a month.
“The cabinet will deal with it and refer it to the respective department or agency for solutions,” he said. — Bernama
