Big budgets but no real development in Tawau

Eastern commercial hub Tawau is far from the picture politicians paint, say local inhabitants.

TAWAU: In 2008 the federal government said Sabah would get some RM17 billion to tar all roads within 30km radius of its township by 2015.

And a year ago Sabah Chief Minister Musa Aman proudly declared Tawau to be free from hardcore poverty.

But the reality appears to be entirely different. Sixty percent of roads are still unpaved and access to basic amenities remains a dream.

Said Kahar, a local resident: “Outsiders may think Tawau is a developed area. But it is not true.

“In actuality public amenities are lagging. Many kampungs here, even nearby ones have no electricity and clean water supply and the roads. They are in bad shape,” he told FMT.

Tawau is a major commercial township on the eastern side of Sabah. It has an active port, airport and businesses both legal and illegal are thriving. Tawau is only 15 minutes away from the Philipines and Indonesian borders.

But ‘development’ is limited to its inner city.

A random check of roads within a 30km radius of the town revealed accessway which in some instances barely passable for vehicles.

Concerned members of the public have put up signages warning motorists of potholes and other hazards.

Sidelined communities

According to Kahar the road to Tanjung Batu which just next to the town had not been maintained for sometime.

“I ply this road everyday. It’s been the same for a long time… there are many kampung roads in Balung area.

“These areas are all less than 30 kilometers from the town,” he said.

Such areas include Serudong Baru, where the Murut community live and Tass which houses Kadazandusun kampungs.

Other communities affected by the lack of facilities include the Bajau community who live in Kalumpang and the Tidong society living in Kampung Terasing, which loosely translated means “marginalised or sidelined.”

All these villages are in the Balung constitency.

Kampung Terasing was named such during the reign of the Berjaya government in the 1970s because for some unknown reason it was always “overlooked”.

A villager who refused to be identified for fear of being victimised told FMT that most from the marginalised areas are now supporting the opposition.

“Opposition leaders are coming in and out of our kampungs now… most of the people in Kampung Terasing are from the Dusunic Tidong communtiy.

“We are actually thankful to the government for their help but what they give us is just not enough.

“We long for more public amenities like what is being enjoyed by others,” he lamented.

Where’s the money?



So where has the RM17 billion allocation to pave all roads within 30km radius of towns in Sabah by the year 2015 gone?

But with three more years to go, some 60% of such roads are still not tarred.

At the time of announcing the allocation, federal Works Minister Mohd Zin Mohamed said the huge allocation was in line with the government’s vision and commitment to boost the Sabah’s infrastructure development which had fallen well behind Peninsular Malaysia.

“We are aware that there are still many roads which have not been upgraded or paved in Sabah and there are also places in the rural areas which have no roads at all,” the minister had said then.

He said Sabah had 15,756km of roads then, of which 5,686km were paved and 9,635km more gravel roads.
The rest were laterite roads.

He also said then that the federal government was looking into the state government’s application to pave a 150km road connecting Sapulut in Pensiangan and Kalabakan in Tawau with an estimated cost of RM100 million.

However this “completed” road was not passable a few weeks ago and a group of domestic visitors from Sarawak had to abandon their trip through this road.