The high rate of poverty in Sabah indicates that government allocations are not reaching the targetted groups.
KOTA KINABALU: MP for Tawau Chua Soon Bui has accused the federal government of cooking up figures to show poverty in the state was on a downward trend.
She said that it was obvious that the government’s poverty eradication programmes were not having the desired effect given that figures showed there had been an increase in the number of hardcore poor between 2004 and 2009.
Chua, who is also a vice-president of Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP), said the department’s figures showed that Sabah’s poverty rate failed to decrease but increased for five years with 19.2% in 2004, 19.5% in 2007 and 19.7% in 2009.
“The high poverty rate indicates that the government allocations have not reached the focus and targeted groups,” she said.
Chua faulted the government’s delivery system as one of the main causes for the failure to tackle the problem in the state which is considered to have the highest number of poverty-stricken people in the country.
She said the delivery systems needed to be rectified immediately to prevent the programme from haemorrhaging more funds.
In addition, she said, the escalating cost of living in Sabah was having a major effect on any poverty-alleviation programme.
She accused the government of failing to single out and tackle the underlying issues that contribute to the problem in the state.
“It shows that the BN government has failed badly to deliver to the people in Sabah,” she said.
Chua was responding to the Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak’s written reply in the Dewan Rakyat recently, in which he said the poverty rate in Sabah had dropped by 3.7% from 23.4% in 1999 to 19.7% in 2009 based on the findings of the Family Incomes and Basic Infrastructure Study 2009 conducted by Malaysia Statistics Department.
Sabah is poorest state
Najib also acknowledged that low education standard was among the key factors that was behind Sabah its current position as the poorest state in the country.
He was replying to a question by Chua who asked what were the factors that lead to Sabah being the poorest state in the country with highest poverty rate of 19.7% as compared to the national average of 3.8%.
She also wanted to know why the government programmes to reduce poverty in the state had failed to have much impact.
The Prime Minister explained that low education standard had contributed to lack of skilled workers which inevitably caused the investors to shun the state. This in return resulted in lack of investments to create employments for the people.
Other factors taken into account were the state’s vast size, scattered population and poor infrastructure all of which contributed to difficulty in implementing community development projects and programmes.
Najib also noted that the factors that caused poverty in the agriculture sector were largely due to unstable commodity prices, and high cost of operation.
The Tawau MP said the government should immediately form a special unit to evaluate and ensure the effectiveness of its poverty eradication programs in Sabah given that the billions of ringgit allocated to Sabah to eradicate poverty was not paying off.
She said it was unacceptable that Sabah had such high poverty rate in 2009 compared to the national average despite the state being rich in petroleum, gas and palm oil, while those living in states without oil and gas resources were better off.
Chua also said that although the government had allocated billions of ringgit for schemes such as Low Income Household, Basic Rural Infrastructure and Cost of Living, whether the needy families have benefited from them was unknown.
Chua Soon Bui, if your party given a mandate, how long would you take to eradicate poverty in this state?? even in advance country still face the same problem..
ReplyDeleteSAPP tidak akan mampu membela nasib rakyat.
DeleteHanya kerajaan yang mampu membantu rakyat.
Deletethe fact is, Sabah's poverty rate will continue to drop based on the 4.5 percent drop from 24.2 percent in 2004 to 19.7 percent in 2009..
ReplyDeleteChief Minister Datuk Seri Musa Aman Musa said the biggest drop was 13.2 percent for remote areas, from 29 percent to 15.8 percent over the same period.
ReplyDeleteHarap2 peratusan kemiskinan di Sabah dapat dikurangkan
DeleteKerajaan berusaha untuk membasmi kemiskinan di Sabah.
DeleteKerajaan dengan peruntukan yang ada berusaha mengeluarkan rakyat Sabah daripada garis kemiskinan
ReplyDeletekadar kemiskinan di sabah dah makin berkurangan.
ReplyDeleteHarap akan semakin berkurangan.
Deletemoga ia akan terus berkurangan.
ReplyDeleteThe number of poor families has also fallen sharply from slightly more than 44,000 a year ago to 24,247 at the end of November.
ReplyDeleteThe first of 1,167 of the poorest families in the east coast villages of Kalabakan and Tongod will be receiving their monthly dividends of 400 ringgit ($129), according to Musa. This is money earned from working on an oil palm plantation venture of state-owned Sawit Kinabalu Sendirian Berhad.
DeleteMusa attributes Sabah’s success in bringing wealth to the poor to the mini estates and “agropolitan” projects funded by the federal and state governments to wipe out poverty.
ReplyDeleteProjects that are coming to fruition are rubber and oil palm plantations at Kampung Bunang, Kampung Kaingaran, Kampung Ulu Patian, Kampung Labang and Kampung Minikodong in the middle of Sabah where the poorest people live.
DeleteMusa says the federal women, family and community development ministry has also given temporary monthly allowances to 10,798 very poor families under the 1Azam scheme to tide them over as they work on the government agricultural projects.
DeleteSabah’s poorest people earn less than 540 ringgit ($169) a month. But thanks to government agricultural and animal husbandry projects, the last of the 15,293 very poor families are on the road to wealthy living. The first 1,167 of these families will be receiving their first quarterly dividends of 400 ringgit each from profits earned from oil palms. In time to come, they will be earning between 3,000 and 4,000 ringgit a month.
ReplyDeleteChief minister Musa Aman said on May 5 after a cabinet meeting that the families in Tongod and Kalabakan villages in the east coast will share about 2m ringgit a year from 80% of the profit earned by Rikaworth Sendirian Berhad, a subsidiary of the state-owned Sawit Kinabalu Sendirian Berhad.
DeleteThis is the first payout under the mini estates and “agropolitan” projects funded by the federal and state government to wipe out abject poverty in the country.
DeleteMr Musa said other projects in Beluran, Kemabong and Kota Belud were doing well and would be paying dividends soon. The money will go into the bank accounts of heads of families at Bank Simpanan Nasional (BSN).
Under the scheme carried out under the Sabah Development Corridor, large tracts of land are used to grow crash corps such as oil palms and rubber and to raise cattle for beef and milk.
DeleteEach villager is given a plot of land of between three and four hectares to work on.
Houses and roads are built for them and they get amenities and facilities such as potable water, electricity, a fire brigade, clinics and community centres.
DeleteAbout 370m ringgit has been set aside for these projects for this year and next. But more money is expected to be spent to achieve the government’s goal that there would no longer be any
DeleteRakyat sendiri perlu berusaha untuk menaik taraf hidup.
ReplyDeleteWOULD it be possible to reduce the critical and crucial level of poverty from infesting deeper into the strata of the Sabah’s poor rural indigenous by the turn of this decade? The answer is affirmative only when the government of the day has the authentic political will and commitment to turn those visions and missions into reality.
ReplyDelete
DeleteIt is still fresh in the minds of every living Malaysian in Sabah that during the 1994 State Poll, contesting BN component parties had jointly staged One Election Manifesto which focused specifically on the Sabah Baru Plan, whereby BN promised to totally eradicate and uproot the level of poverty in the State accumulatively unsolved during the “Dark Ages of PBS Administration, from 33 per cent at that time to Zero Level by 2000 if it got the mandate to rule the State.
DeleteStrategically, BN was successful to take the helm of the State administration, when a couple of winning candidates from PBS switched camp in favour of BN. However, upon reaching the breakeven point of the 21st century i.e year 2000, the Sabah Baru Plan did not materialise neither implemented to the optimum due to a number of reasons, which possibly take a considerable amount of time for lengthy explanation.
DeleteOver the years, the percentages of poverty is still increasing double fold at a very crucial and alarming level in most rural regions. Imagine what would this mean to our poor rural natives in the event that the Global Economic Crisis is turning its ugly head on us? Perhaps the scenario will be horrific beyond description!
DeleteLately The World Bank Report revealed that about 40 per cent of Malaysia’s hardcore poor is found in Sabah listing it is the second poorest State in the country with the household income of less than RM 800 per month, which is below the poverty line scale.
DeleteThe paradox is former premier Tun Dr Mahathir Mohammed disagreed with the outcome of the report, which according to him is prejudice and bias instilled with hidden political agenda, which looked like leaning more with the tendency to favour the nation’s former Deputy PM Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, who once filled the slot as Chairman of the World Bank, to lead the country.
Judging from Sabah’s extensive geographical features compared to other States in Malaysia except Sarawak, the task to fully eradicate the roots of poverty would be a time consuming process to undertake and a lot huddles need to be overcome.
Delete
DeleteIt would depend upon the wisdom of the State leadership to convince the Federal leaders on the need of the justified allocation to be fully utilised for this specific objective.
The BN State Government under the present leadership of CM Datuk Seri Musa Aman has got the ball rolling to implement the relevant socio–economic programmes within the State’s financial resources, aimed at reducing the poverty level, as the way of getting the poor segments of the population out of the stigma.
Delete
DeleteCM Musa’s credibility and strategic effort to fulfil this goal could not be questioned as Musa has been proven instrumental in bringing Sabah to attain the followings under his administration namely:-
Deletea) In the restoration of the State’s financial status from RM 300 million after the 1997-2000 Asian Economic Crisis to RM 2.4 billion recently.
c) In leading the State to attain the status as a Shining Star in the Auditor General ’s Report, the only BN controlled State in the country sharing the distinctive credits together with two Opposition controlled States of Penang and Selangor for scoring well on exceptional fiscal management for year 2009.
DeleteGenerally, Musa has played a significant role towards attaining those status in question in his capacity as the Chief Minister of Sabah, apart from bringing robust economic growth in the State. A SUCCESS THAT NO SABAH CM HAS ACHIEVED, THIS IT IS A WRITTEN FACTS AND FIGURES THAT COULD NOT BE DISPUTED TO THE ENVY OF OTHERS.
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DeleteThe non availability of basic infrastructural facilities in the rural regions, as a whole would further explain why the quantum of poverty still persist to the extend that many rural kids are not able to get access to better education and have instead become school drops out upon having attained just the lower secondary level.
DeleteComparatively, there is a wide gap separating the rural and urban students in terms of the statistical achievements of outstanding results in every PMR, SPM or STPM examination held annually.
DeleteIn the words of CM Musa, while officiating an opening ceremony of presenting letters of offers to study in Universiti Institute Teknologi Mara (UITM) recently, he was quoted as saying “The high poverty rate is closely related to the level of education that each individual achieves in his or her lives. Hence, the best key to bring the Bumiputras out of poverty is to provide access for them to pursue their studies at higher institutions” (Poverty is linked to education level : CM, The Daily Express 21st May 2011).
DeleteFactually, the State Government is not the sole authority committed with the responsibility in weeding out poverty in Sabah, The Federal Ministry of Rural and Regional Development under Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Afdal is vested with similar roles as well to achieve this parallel objective except that the ministry in question is given a wider scope to focus on nationwide in view of the ministry’s huge allocation totalling RM 16 billion approved by parliament lately, to be fairly channelled for rural projects development throughout the country within a period of three years.
Particularly in the respective States with the highest level of poverty in the country including Sabah, where the hardcore poor is not merely found among the rural communities living in the hinterland, but it exists in a number of fishing villages located along the coastal regions of the State, as can be seen from several documentary films or videos produced locally.
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DeleteFor instance in 2008 TV3 had shown a live footage of the poor rural folks living at the Northern Region of the State without basic amenities namely electricity and clean drinking water.
DeleteDocumentaries showing the poor natives living in the State’s interior, where the Muruts dominate is no exception etc., thus exposing to the outside world, the tip of an iceberg of the hardcore poor scenario found within the State.
Majority of these poor rural folks depend on subsistence farming as the mode of livelihood, carried out manually on their respective small plots of lands to produce cash crops, which bring small returns of income virtually insufficient to make both ends meet for their families so do the fishermen who depend upon their daily catch from the open seas.
DeleteThe Government ’s Social Welfare Programme which pays RM 400 to every eligible ‘Golden Citizen’ upon reaching the 60 year old age mark will at least help the aging population during their retirement period, the irony is the soaring market prices of food items nowadays is hardly enough or suffice to support a family with one child and it would be more burdening for those who have five or more children or next of kin in the family.
DeleteMost rural villages occupied by the hardcore poor in the State do not have electricity neither supply of clean water for ages, villagers would use kerosene lamps to avoid the risks of groping in the dark after sun set or when night falls and would depend on acidic rain water when the river water turns muddy unfit for human consumption during the rainy season, as result of uncontrolled conventional logging activities in the past or those actively going on at present that may have damaged the water catchment area located upstream.
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DeleteAs for road mobility, most rural folks would find that the only stretch of road within their reach from the villages is nothing other than those built by timber companies operating close by that enabling them to come out of their village to the accessible town area. Kpg Inarat, Pinangah or Kpg Piangkau, Paitan is a good example to support this paradox.
DeleteHowever, once the timber companies complete their full cycle of timber harvesting operations within the designated logging areas, the road stretch in question will soon be abandoned and gradually certain portion of the road would get deteriorated as maintenance work is no longer available. Except for vehicles, the villagers can use the road to travel on foot.
Somewhere in the Interior, a cluster of villages located within the range of 25 kilometres from the administrative town do have rural electrification, but the villagers still depend on the gravity pipes, tapping the running water from the nearby hills for their source of drinking water, which dried out during the hot season and turned muddy and unfit to drink in the midst of heavy down pours.
DeleteThe Trans Pegalan Villages comprising Kampong Ambual, Kampong Megatang, Kampong Marasak and Kampong Sedomon etc. which have road link with Keningau Town 20 kilometres apart is a case in point. These villages are located within the electoral jurisdiction of The Sook State Constituency and The Pensiangan Parliamentary seat respectively.
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DeleteBefore re-delineation or adjustment of the electoral boundaries, the villages in question predominantly inhabited by the KDM communities, were once part of the Keningau Parliamentary constituency for many years, but the longstanding problem of getting clean and treated drinking water for these villagers seemed to have been overlooked by their elected YB.
DeleteThe problem still remains unsolved until today and have yet to be implemented despite having gone through the changes of State Governments since the dawn of independence.
DeleteIt would raise many eyebrows whether the current YBs representing the constituencies both from PBRS, the BN component party are well aware of the villagers shortcoming since taking office. It is timely that this issue need speedy attention before the National Poll, whereby every contesting candidate would come knocking at the voters’ doors with strings of sweet promises.
DeleteDespite being referred to as the region of the rural poor, the fact is the Interior Residency is not short of qualified politicians including those in possession of Master Degree in International Affairs, the academic qualification earned from a prestigious UK university and considered very relevant to modern politics.
These new generation of educated politicians with the winnable profiles and leadership potential should be given the opportunities to run as candidates within their respective home constituencies be it at State or National level in the 13th General Election.
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DeleteIt is undoubtedly that they can do a lot of wonders as catalysts to our government’s effort in materialising its Socio–Economic Development Programmes especially to reduce the stiff impact caused by the social stigma known as ‘Poverty’ found infesting in most underdeveloped rural regions of ‘The Land Below The Wind’.
DeleteHence, we look forward with optimism the extend of the joint hands cooperation rendered by the relevant authorities, both at State and Federal Level to play an effective role together to materialise the National Building Concept, which will eventually uproot the main causes of Sabah ’s poverty in particular, within the expected time frame by the turn of this decade, despite a frustrated voice breaking out from somewhere “expressing disappointment with the State Government for allegedly blocking funding from its federal counterpart, particularly from the Rural and Regional Development Ministry”.
DeleteThe misleading and unfounded allegation made by Datuk Abdul Rahim, the UMNO Pantai Manis Assemblyman and former State Minister lately is a case in point. Such allegation is believed to be deliberately orchestrated with the motives of nothing other than to tarnish the outstanding, fantastic and marvellous track records of current UMNO led BN State Administration under CM Musa.
DeleteRetrospectively, over the years the people of Sabah have seen the numbers of CMs, Members of Parliament and State Legislative Assemblymen from every ruling party changing hand one after the other including those representing constituencies where the poor natives dominate.
DeletePeople are now fully matured to judge the backgrounds and credibility of leaders, who come in search of political pleasure either in the broad daylight or after sunset and have now turned out to be very vocal fighting for the Sabahan Rights, when they are no longer in the government or those who did not get appointed to any of the present State Ministerial position. What an amusing political drama that seems to be emerging in the midst of the coming poll speculation!
DeleteThe politicians who fit the descriptions as liability to the people, should be replaced or rejected at once, irrespective of whether they are aligned with the ruling coalition or the opposition. There is no point of ‘flogging dead horses’ who could care less for their communities within their respective constituencies during their terms of office as the peoples’ representatives be it at State or Federal level.
DeleteIt is only fair that those who have served the community well during their terms of office be allowed to continue serving longer with the people supports, but not those who have been there for years and did nothing or little other than to show their egos with their YB tags.