The economy of Sabah is now on its last legs; will the imminent crash of the palm oil industry spell its final collapse?In the mid-2000s, however, it became the undisputed economic barometer of the state amidst the rise of China and Russia, notwithstanding all the price oscillations.
With a current global consumption of more than 100 million metric tons annually, plantations have been heavily criticised for accelerating the total destruction of rainforest and pushing wildlife to the brink of extinction; but the challenges only fuelled more aggressive expansion by insatiable entrepreneurs, both local and from the Peninsula, whose wealth soared as demand kept knocking at their gates.
In Sabah where more than 70% of Malaysia’s palm oil output is sourced from, crude palm oil (CPO) prices influence government policies and options because it attracted hundreds of millions of investments. Thus it played an important role in her future, providing employment to a large number of foreign workers who are an economic force by themselves and livelihood to many smallholders in the rural areas in the north, east, and south of Sabah.
The prospects were so good that even the Sabah Rubber Fund Board was contemplating planting oil palm at one time.
For those who do not know how filthy rich the big planters are, they are the people who pushed up all the real property prices and rentals in all major towns of Sabah by buying up not just one but blocks after blocks because there is nothing else left to buy with their immense monthly millions.
The economy of Sabah is now on its last legs; will the imminent crash of the palm oil industry spell its final collapse?
Where are the effects of the Economic Transformation Programme (ETP) that is supposed to stop a disaster of this nature from happening? Whoever came up with this fanciful sounding project must definitely have not expected a debacle of this magnitude.
This is what happens when the government kept telling the people of Sabah delusional fibs that we are financially healthy and giving us the impression of non-existent growth with no thought of whether it is appropriate; but reality always has a way of exposing falsehood.
Seek professional help
Economics is all about supply meeting demand; no one in the industry including the government seemed to know that whatever goes up must also come down and vice versa.
When the times are good, everyone made money; nobody cared to save up or make provisions to tackle or cope with bad times. In short, it is like building your irrigation during good weather in anticipation of flooding during the monsoons.
There is really nothing that the government could do now that the palm oil price is plummeting.
What it should have done in the beginning was to make all the preparations to cushion or mitigate the fall before it actually happens.
The government has failed miserably in this aspect of governance and has lost touch with the people when it did not see this plunge coming.
Like the recession of the mid-1980s and the Asian Financial Crisis of 1997/1998, it will be a chain reaction; bankruptcies will rise by leaps and bounds when people could not repay their bank borrowings, but the government will be bailing the banks out instead of the people.
One of the reasons foreign buyers are getting their CPO supplies from Indonesia instead of Malaysia is because of better pricing and minimal bureaucracy.
Before the government can even think of a recovery, it should put aside its undeserved pride and first seek professional help from people with the real credentials to pillow this financial plunge if it really cares for the people as it claimed.
The writer is a member of the fading Sabah travel industry, loves food and speed, speaks to all sides of the political divide, and blogs at http://legalandprudent.blogspot.com/ giving no quarters.
Setelah mendengar dan mengambil kira respon dan pandangan orang awam, barulah kerajaan BN membuat “endorsement” terhadap Program Transformasi Ekonomi dan Kerajaan . Buku Jingga pula, sepanjang pengetahuan saya, tidak pernah membuat sebarang percubaan untuk mendapatkan pandangan umum sebelum ianya digubal. Mungkin sebab itulah rakyat kurang merasai potensi Buku Jingga ini.
ReplyDeleteKini sekurang-kurangnya rakyat dapat menilai antara keberkesanan Buku Jingga dan Model Ekonomi Baru ilham Perdana Menteri YAB Dato Sri Najib Tun Razak.
ReplyDeleteRakyat juga bijak menilai sejauh mana perancangan ekonomi baru memanfaatkan rakyat.
DeleteApa yang di rancang kerajaan pasti memberi kebaikan kepada rakyat.
DeleteSaya sebenarnya mengharapkan satu buku yang sarat dengan hujah-hujah ekonomi yang berdasarkan fakta yang nyata. Harapan saya ternyata meleset apabila membaca 3 mukasurat yang pertama sahaja, saya agak terkejut kerana PR masih lagi menggunakan berbagai-bagai label dan ungkapan-ungkapan retorik untuk mencemuh BN. Antaranya: selamatkan Malaysia, noda hak rakyat, rasuah, salahguna kuasa, bolot, tidak peduli, mengekang, tidak berjiwa rakyat, krisis parah, perkauman, durjana, pudar, ketinggalan, meraba-raba, bongkak, pentingkan sendiri, mundur, merudum, penderitaan, ketirisan, songsang, hambar, menunggang, lemah, kemelut, malap, gelap, ketakutan dan kabur.
ReplyDeletePR sepatutnya belajar daripada BN. Contohnya dalam dokumen Model Ekonomi Baru yang merangkumi Program Transformasi Ekonomi dan Kerajaan, tidak ada satu ayat pun yang memperlekehkan pembangkang.
DeleteSemuanya ditulis dengan rasa keinsafan dan kesedaran bahawa Model Ekonomi Baru adalah milik semua rakyat Malaysia, tidak kira apa pegangan politik mereka.
DeleteBN menyedari bahawa untuk Program Transformasi Ekonomi dan Kerajaan berjaya, semua rakyat Malaysia termasuk yang menyokong BN dan PR perlu menerimanya. Sebab itu, adalah penting untuk PR menyedari bahawa untuk berjaya, Buku Jingga juga perlu memenangi majoriti hati rakyat termasuk penyokong BN dan mereka yang di atas pagar.
ReplyDeleteRakyat yang harus menjadi pemenang di akhirnya.
DeletePerbezaan antara Buku Jingga dan Program Transformasi Ekonomi dan Kerajaan ialah cara ianya dirancang. Program Transformasi Ekonomi dan Kerajaan dirancang oleh BN setelah mendapat pandangan dan cadangan daripada rakyat melalui beberapa siri interaksi dan perhubungan dengan mereka
ReplyDeleteBuku jingga hanya manifesto pembangkang. tidak mungkin mereka dapat tunaikannya.
DeleteBuku jingga hanya mimpi kosong pembangkang.
DeletePakatan Pembangkang khususnya Anwar al-Juburi, Azmin Ali, Rafizi Ramli, Zuraida dan pemimpin PKR harus membaca kenyataan di bawah bahawa ekonomi Malaysia dalam keadaan baik dan terurus.
ReplyDeletekononnya hutang negara kini lebih 75 peratus. Dari mana PKR dan Pakatan Pembangkang mendapat angka itu kebiasannya adalah rekaan bagi mengaburi pemikiran rakyat dengan usaha menjatuhkan reputasi kerajaan BN. Hakikatnya dengan mengambil kira buku Jingga yang menjadi manifesto Pakatan Pembangkang, nescaya negara akan muflis dalam tempoh dua tahun.
DeleteHutang Malaysia masih terurus kerana ia berada di bawah 55 peratus berbanding nisbah Keluaran Dalam Negara Kasar
DeletePerkembangan ekonomi negara menghala arah yang positif.
DeleteSokong, dapat di lihat pembangunan dan ekonomi Negara semakin maju.
DeleteSebenarnya pembangunan ekonomi Sabah begitu pesat bermula tahun 2003, menunggu 18 tahun pembangunan yang dicipta Tan Sri Harris Salleh tahun 1976-1985.
ReplyDeletePelaburan swasta Sabah mencapai RM10bilion untuk suku pertama tahun 2012.
ReplyDeleteSejak Musa dilantik sebagai Ketua Menteri Sabah pada tahun 2003, bajet pembangunan negeri dari tahun ke tahun terus bertambah, malah bajet tahun 2012 mencecah lebih RM4 bilion, berbanding Selangor yang hanya RM1.6bilion.
ReplyDeletePengurusan bujet harus bijak agar tiada penyelewengan.
DeleteJika pelaksaan dapat di jalankan mengikut apa yang di rancang, semua pasti akan berjalan lancar.
DeleteSemasa Musa dilantik sebagai Menteri Kewangan Sabah, simpanan Sabah hanya RM200 juta. Sejak itu, dari tahun ke tahun simpanan negeri terus bertambah, sehinggalah mencapai RM3bilion.
ReplyDeleteKestabilan politik di Sabah menjadi unsur utama kemasukan pelaburan asing.
ReplyDeleteHarap ekonomi Sabah akan terus meningkat.
DeleteSABAH, wake up! Many believe they (BN/UMNO) tortured Teoh BH till early hours of his wedding day and threw him down a high building, over suspected corruption of a few thousand RM$. The RM45billion (45,000million) the Sarawak CM directly & indirectly fleeced from Sarawak; the RM500million bribe in the Scorpene deal, the Mongolian Lady’s murder, and the RM250million spent by Shahrizat; these are 200 million times in magnitude. Let the punishment fit the crime! Shouldn’t they be given 200 million strokes of the rattan and thrown 200 million times down a high building? These corruption cases are only the tip of the iceberg! An economist at Morgan Stanley stated that M’sia might have lost as much as US$100 bill since the early 80s to corruption (=RM300 billion = RM300,000 million).
ReplyDeleteDespite all these, these Crims stand, walk and talk so proudly and gloriously. UMNO/BN/PBB are more than rotten to the core, They stink for miles with maggots and worms wriggling in and out of bones. Tragically the natives in Sabah & Sarawak are still ‘asleep,’ led by the noses to vote for BN, making the 2 states the strongest supporters of the evil regime. I speak with fairness from New Zealand - rated among the most democratic & uncorrupt nations in the world.
ReplyDeleteSabah please wake up! DAP, PR, PAS are needed now. Umno -BN and its cronies have taken hundreds of billions in contracts, emptied the national coffer with hundreds of financial scandals. Can you afford another 55 yrs with the Umno-BN? PM & MACC pretend all the massive multi-billion corruption are non-existent. It is obvious, BN’s interest is not in the people’s welfare, only in clinging to power. They support deception, cheating & multi-billion thefts on a grand scale. They tortured & murdered Teoh B.H on his wedding day over suspected corruption of petty few thousand $, while few hundred millions of Scorpene Submarine bribes, & Mongolian's blasted murder went unheeded. So is the RM45billion wealth of Sarawak CM, in power for 31 years! Where is their integrity, sense of shame? These are beasts of the lowest form. kicking them out in GE13 and putting them in jail is not enough. The punishment must befit the crime.
ReplyDeleteAlmost 1 million NRICs given to foreigners to win election against genuine citizens of Sabah. All the revenues from oil & gas, sucked dry by the Federal Gov't and so indirectly by UMNO/BN with little or nothing left for Sabah & Sarawak. Just compare: Scotland in Great Britain and Quebec in Canada had an open, honest & fair national referendum on cessation/separation. Any talk of independence and your ex Sabah CM Tun Faud Donald Stephens died in a crash. Sabah & Sarawak are a total tragedy, not even a proper trunk road! The natives lack electricity and drinking water while Criminals bought submarines and built twin towers costing multi-billions for kick-backs; all cronies live in palaces. Outrageous! BN's evil is earth-shaking. Finish them off in the coming election. !
ReplyDeleteBN akan terus membawa pembangunan kepada Sabah.
ReplyDeletePalm oil represented the biggest chunk of Sabah’s exports in 2011 at 38.8 per cent, followed by crude petroleum at 32.88 per cent.
ReplyDeleteIt is a big tragedy that BN/UMNO's strongest support comes from Sarawak & Sabah, it is a big shame. Please let's beg all the rural people to wake up, it' been 56 years, too long. Come to New Zealand and see how the Government looks after the country and people.
ReplyDelete