KUALA TERENGGANU, Jan 1 (Bernama) -- The federal government paid the Terengganu government RM408.6 million in oil royalty on Dec 12 and the state is to receive oil royalty directly from national oil corporation Petronas from March this year, Menteri Besar Datuk Ahmad Said said today.
He said the federal government had also surrendered total management of the oil royalty to the state government and, as such, it was needless for the opposition to raise the issue during the campaign in the upcoming Kuala Terengganu parliamentary by-election.
"I am saddened that the opposition continues to raise irrelevant and incorrect issues," he said at the official launch of the media centre set up jointly by the Information Department and the state government for the by-election, here.
Nomination is on Jan 6 and polling on Jan 17.Ahmad said the opposition claim that the oil royalty did not benefit the people was baseless, and explained that the state government had brought much development after it took over the state in the 2004 general election.
He said much of the oil royalty or special fund was channelled to education, including providing scholarships and giving free tuition, which has enabled Terengganu to obtain excellent results in the Ujian Penilian Sekolah Rendah (UPSR) and Penilaian Menengah Rendah (PMR) examinations.
Ahmad said that various programmes had been draw up to help the poor raise their economic standard, including by way of the "ladang rakyat" (people's plantations) for oil palm cultivation.
He also hit out at the opposition for continuing to harp on phantom voters when the Election Commission always ensured that elections in the country were transparent and impartial."When they (the opposition) won in five states in the last general election, they did not raise the issue of phantom voters," he said.
Meanwhile, Director-General of Information Datuk Abdullah Murad said the media centre in Jalan Pejabat here would operate from 8am to 2am until Jan 18 and provide various facilities including workstations, computers, wi-fi, fax machines, press conference room and meeting room.
"Every morning, we will hold a briefing for the media on the compiled field issues to facilitate the media personnel in writing accurate news," he said.Abdullah said media personnel could obtain the latest information on programmes attended by federal and state leaders at the media centre or by surfing http://media.inform.gov.my/e-press .
He said the Information Department had processed 204 applications for media accreditation cards for the by-election.
KERATAN BERNAMA 2 Januari 2009
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