COMMENT | For opposition, politics trumps everything, even national interest

COMMENT | Parliamentary speaker Azhar Azizan Harun has chided MPs who want to debate claims over Petronas assets by the purported heirs of the Sulu sultanate, as this could reveal the government’s legal strategies to the enemy.

“Do we want as we are debating this, I don’t know what will be said, the government’s strategy revealed, and there are criticisms of it?

“Then the other side can learn (our strategy). Would that not hurt the government’s interest in its litigation proceedings? Do we want to show our strategy to the world?

“The first rule of litigation is the element of surprise, the first rule of war is the same,” he said in Parliament on June 20.

Hence, the speaker said it was his responsibility to ensure that the government’s strategies were not exposed.

The purported heirs of the last Sulu sultan, Sultan Jamalul Kiram II, are using international legal processes in a bid to claim US$14.92 billion (RM66.38 billion) in overdue cession payments for Sabah.

The arbitration process was initiated in response to Malaysia cutting off the annual cession payments of RM5,300 to the Sulu sultanate in 2013.

Following the award, the Sulu side, via their lawyers, managed to seize two Luxembourg-incorporated subsidiaries of Petronas worth US$2 billion (RM8.9 billion).