Petronas’ claims of meritocracy hold no water: SPG

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Yusuf Abdul Rahman

Yusuf Abdul Rahman

MIRI: Suarah Petroleum Group (SPG) said national oil corporation Petronas had forgotten its role and Sarawak’s sacrifice in making it a Fortune 500 company while its employment records contrasted sharply with its claims of meritocracy.

Speaking on behalf of SPG, its media communications officer Yusuf Abdul Rahman said Petronas’ claims that it’s latest manpower restructuring exercise was based on merit were off the mark and that there were plenty of qualified Sarawakians around.

He said Petronas owed a big chunk of its success to Sarawak; since its inception to a multi-national corporation listed in Fortune 500.

“Sarawakians are not asking or begging for jobs which they don’t deserve. All Sarawakians want is a fair chance. If that is denied to them because of pro-West Malaysian Petronas bias, then it has to answer to the state,” he said.

He accused Petronas in its quest to become a multi-national corporation of having forgotten its role as a national oil company and that citing meritocracy was only an excuse.

“Sarawakians were employed in the oil and gas business long before any West Malaysians and today are among the best. They can find employment in O&G worldwide, but strangely not in their home state for Petronas. Why?”

SPG pointed out that having sacrificed its petroleum resources to Petronas for the last 40 years, Sarawak had every right for priority to be given to Sarawakians for jobs in the state.

This entity was set up at the behest of Minister of Industrial Development Datuk Amar Awang Tengah Ali Hasan last year to gather engineers, lawyers, consultants, entrepreneurs, contractors and service providers in the oil and gas industry together as a body of knowledge and experience for the state government to tap into.

Yusuf said Malaysia was formed under the condition of Borneonisation and state rights, including control over its own immigration and priority for employment.

He said the condition had been flouted by Petronas, pointing to the lack of Sarawakians in senior management positions in Petronas itself, even at the boardroom level.

“While the HR department of Petronas must look at the larger picture, in doing so, it must not forget its roots and who it is supposed to look after,” he said, adding that even junior staff from Peninsular Malaysia were being given jobs replacing senior Sarawakians.