BN = Barang Naik = Inflation
KOTA KINABALU, February 21, 2011: Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) has put the entire blame on the Barisan Nasional (BN) government, on the increasingly high inflation and escalating cost of living in Sabah.
It thus wanted to know what are the measures and steps taken by the government to curb the further rise of cost of living in Sabah.
It also wants to know how the Barisan Nasional (BN) led government can help to stabilise, if not increase the working class' take-home salary that is important to counter the higher than usual cost of living faced by the people of Sabah.
It further inquired how much of the savings from the abolishment of the oil subsidy been spent to help curb the higher cost of living endured by the people, and will there be improvements to our basic infrastructure and public transportation system.
Posing these questions in a statement issued here today, SAPP Api-Api CLC Organising Secretary Clement Lee stressed that these pressing issues warrant immediate attention of the ruling government to solve them.
He also quipped that whenever people talked about inflation nowadays, they would automatically think of Barisan Nasional, as its acronym BN relates to "Barang Naik" which means inflation in Malay.
"It seems that everywhere you go nowadays, you will people cursing the BN," he quipped.
He pointed out that the surge in global oil prices had and will continue to bring about the increase of many, if not most essential items, while most industries have not witnessed a similar pattern with regards to salary and fringe benefits.
He lamented that despite being an oil producing state, Sabah has been hit hard with the frequent yet multiple hikes in petrol prices.
“The higher cost of living in Sabah, is in no small way and by no small mean, attributed to the fluctuations in petrol prices which have in turn, contributed to the increase of prices of our essential items i.e. consumer products such as sugar, salt, meat, onion, garlic, rice, cooking oil and many more due to the higher manufacturing costs and transportation charges to Kota Kinabalu.
“People from all walks of life, be it white collar professionals or blue collar laborers, are already starting to feel the pinch of such increase. The gradual, subtle but substantial increase in the cost of living of fellow Sabahans has not been reflected in, what would have been a similar, parallel and expected increase in their respective salaries. The very few that have been lucky enough to be granted neither see such increment as equal nor enough to negate such higher cost of living,” he elaborated.
Lee further noted that the same was felt by the various small business owners like sundry shops, kopitiams and hawkers in and around the city, who have little or no choice but to pass on the additional burden to the consumers.
This inevitably compelled the people across the board to tighten their belts, he added.
He also questioned Datuk Dr. Yee Moh Chai, the State Resource and Information Technology Minister on what are the steps being taken to prevent and if possible, iron out, once and for all, the intermittent and less-than-satisfactory internet access provided by Telekom Malaysia.
“Lest we forget, the lesser-than-claimed and totally unacceptable internet speed provided by the very company. We do not want to get too used to mediocre policies, products and such related services,” he said.
He attributed all these problems to the failure of the present Government in carrying out its duties, obligations and responsibilities towards bettering the standard of living in Sabah.
“What is the point of approving and building so many shopping malls in KK whilst the majority of Sabahan youth and adults can only afford to window-shop, in no part due to our lower aggregated income?” he asked.
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