Move seen as farewell gift to Abdullah who hands over power in April
By S JAYASANKARAN
IN KUALA LUMPUR
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IN what can only be described as a monumental farewell gift to Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, Brunei yesterday dropped its long-standing claim to Limbang district in Sarawak state.
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| Rare triumph: Malaysian PM Abdullah Ahmad Badawi (left) and Brunei Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah (right) at the signing ceremony yesterday. The agreement could settle all the disputes between the two countries |
Indeed, it was a triumphant farewell tour for Mr Abdullah. Agreements signed between Brunei's monarch Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah and the Malaysian premier in Bandar Seri Begawan yesterday could settle all the disputes between the two countries.
The disputes centre on conflicting territorial claims over land and sea: in the Limbang case, it stretches back over a century. The area is a 4,000-sq-km territory that bisects Brunei, cannot be reached by road from Sarawak, but is part of the state nevertheless, because it was forcibly annexed from Brunei in 1890 by Charles Brooke, Sarawak's 'White Rajah' then.
Brunei has claimed the land for years, a claim that has been generally ignored or dismissed out of hand by Kuala Lumpur. More recently, however, tensions also rose over overlapping claims to areas of the South China Sea that could be playing host to billions of dollars worth of petroleum deposits.
The agreements made it clear that future oil revenues would be shared not unlike the current production-sharing agreements between Thailand and Malaysia. On Sunday, Malaysian Foreign Minister Rais Yatim announced the formation of a Brunei-Malaysia 'technical committee' to oversee all matters arising from the agreements inked by the two leaders.
It will take time to see results though. The technical committee for the Joint Development Area where oil is shared between Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur, for example, was agreed to in 1976 but actual joint production only took place in the 1990s.
The events mark a rare triumph for Mr Abdullah, now in the twilight of his political career as he prepares to hand over power to his deputy Najib Razak early next month. His predecessor, Mahathir Mohamad, had promised to resolve all differences - especially over oil - between Malaysia and Brunei before he stepped down in November 2003, but failed to get anywhere.
A political insider told BT that Sultan Hassanal, during a recent visit to Kuala Lumpur, had hinted about a 'farewell gift' he had wanted to give Mr Abdullah. But other analysts said that the global financial crisis may have also played a part because as long as the disputes remained unresolved, the oil could not be extracted. Brunei is, essentially, a one-commodity economy and its oil reserves are projected to be depleted in 15 years.
Indeed, the stage for bickering was set in 2002 after Murphy Oil, an independent contractor working for Petronas, struck oil under 1,340m of water 150km off the coast of Sabah. For Malaysia, the Kikeh find was huge with an estimated recoverable reserve of up to 700 million barrels, or 21 per cent of current reserves.
The find was so big that both Malaysia and Brunei hired prospectors to explore two nearby blocks in 2003. Both blocks were exposed to overlapping claims. Brunei claimed the area as part of its exclusive economic zone, and Malaysia rejected it.
Push came to shove in April 2003 when the Malaysian navy sent several gunboats into the disputed area to block the arrival of a Brunei-hired prospecting ship. After a tense stand-off involving a single Brunei patrol craft, the prospector backed off.
Despite best efforts by both Dr Mahathir and Mr Abdullah, the situation remained in stalemate with both sides stopping all work in the disputed areas since the standoff.
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