SAPP motion rejected

The motion by Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) to adjourn scheduled agenda of the State Legislative Assembly sitting today to debate on the Kimanis-Bintulu gas pipeline was rejected by Speaker Datuk Haji Juhar Mahiruddin.

UPDATE

An attempt by the Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) to simultaneously move emergency motions on Petronas’s 500km gas pipeline project from Kimanis in Sabah to Bintulu in Sarawak met with failure when the Dewan Rakyat in Kuala Lumpur and the Sabah State Assembly in Kota Kinabalu rejected them today.

Both the assemblies held the view that although the RM3 billion project was a specific matter and of public interest, there was no urgency to debate it.

Parliament Deputy Speaker Datuk Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar turned it down when it was brought up by Sepangar MP Datuk Eric Majimbun while Sabah State Assembly Speaker Datuk Juhar Mahiruddin did the same when Likas assemblyman Datuk Liew Teck Chan raised it in Kota Kinabalu.

Eric when raising the motion said that as the natural resource was coming from Sabah, it was only right that it be developed for the benefit of the people of Sabah.

Juhar told Liew that there would be ample opportunities to debate the matter during the assembly sitting.

The Federal government recently announced that the project would go ahead and that only surplus gas after meeting Sabah’s petrochemical industry needs would be piped to Sarawak. The project is scheduled to be completed by March 2011.