On the 12th of June 2022, news surfaced claiming two of Petronas’ subsidiaries are being claimed by lawyers representing the Sulu sultanate.

Press Statement by The DAP’s National Public Complaints Bureau chairman and Member of Parliament for Kepong, Lim Lip Eng on Wednesday calls for Prime Minister Ismail Sabri to go “live” on TV to explain to the nation how our national assets under Petronas were seized in Luxembourg by the heirs of the purported Sulu sultanate.

This news report has indeed put Malaysia in the spotlight again for the wrong reasons. We are now an international embarrassment again, after the much publicised 1MDB financial fraud.

The Prime Minister is duty bound to also inform us of the steps to be undertaken by the government to safeguard our other assets overseas from being seized. The people are keen to know if other Malaysian assets in the 167 countries that are signatories to the New York Convention are in the process of being taken over by the heirs of the Sulu sultanate.

Investors and the financial markets will lose confidence in our country if Ismail is unable to provide any sensible explanation, since the amount claimed by the Sulu heirs amounted to a total of US$14.92 billion (RM62.59 billion) from Malaysia.

On March 1 this year, the Malaysian government has already been warned of the risk of our national assets in the 167 countries being seized. What did Ismail Sabri and his cabinet ministers do to prevent it? Who shall take responsibility for the money and resign?

Thank you,

LIM LIP ENG

MP for Kepong

National Public Complaints Bureau chairman