A week after Budget 2014 was announced by Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak, a raft of questions continue to bother ordinary taxpayers in Sabah.
Put simply, if the government is expecting to “make” or “save” more money by imposing a new tax system on us, what’s in it for us?
In any transaction there must be some sort of return (ideally beneficial). What is it in the case of Sabah and Sarawak?
For most in the east Malaysian states, the fiscal policies dreamed up in the peninsula have always been seen as predatory practices put together by federal leaders with the consent of lickspittle leaders in the two states.
For the majority of Sabahans, much of what the prime minister divulged and sought to justify on budget day makes little sense. Sabah though blessed with bountiful natural resources including rich oil and gas fields is still ill-developed.
The poverty rate, according to a World Bank report, is the highest in the country and that’s a harsh reality the government has failed to explain.
So it’s excusable when the people of the state argue that they have already contributed a colossal amount to the national coffers.
The federal government, they note, has already been grabbing 95% of their oil and gas wealth and taken control of all the major revenue-collecting government agencies and departments and there is little to show for it over the last 50 years.
So now when they are asked to cough up more to subsidise the profligacy of Barisan Nasional government leaders, they want some transparency starting with the accounting books of national oil company Petronas which is currently only for the prime minister’s eyes and not parliament.
As former state secretary Simon Sipaun said: “We have been producing oil and gas in Sabah for some time. What puzzles me is that the people have no access to Petronas accounts.
“I used to be permanent secretary of the (state) Ministry of Finance. At the time we were told Sabah was producing between 120,000 – 150,000 barrels of oil per day … Sabah alone. We are supposed to get 5% royalty.
“Every time we get the lump sum payment from the authority say 100 million or 120 million (ringgit), they just tell you this is your 5%.
“But without having access to the account how can you verify that whatever you got is actually representing 5%? Figures can always be manipulated. I was very disturbed by this sort of thing.
“I feel that the Petronas account should not be shrouded in secrecy. After all man did not give Sabah the oil. Man did not give Sabah the gas. It’s god given.
“To be fair to the people of Sabah, the least that should be done is that we should have access to the accounts of Petronas and we should know how the government is going to spend the revenue from Petronas.
“About the subsidy what is the real truth? We only know what we are told.
“If the government is not giving us the full story about the accounts of Petronas, how can I be so sure that all this so called subsidy and the figures dished out are actually the true situation?
“I don’t know … but whatever it is, I hear some leaders say that the 20 sen rise will not affect the ordinary people.
“One politician from Sabah said that it will not affect the rural people because they don’t have car. Come on … every time the price of oil goes up the rest will follow it up.
“You name any commercial activity that does not involve oil,” the well-respected retired civil servant said during an interview in September shortly after Sabah politicians downplayed the increase in fuel prices.
The Auditor-General’s report just days before the budget was presented on Oct 25, highlighted scandal and stupendous waste with no light at the end of the tunnel.
Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) chief Abu Kassim Mohamed has already said there is no law to punish those guilty of “carelessness and stupidity” and stop the cash haemorrhage.
So, Prime Minister Najib’s 2014 budget is a bit like asking for charity to support the spendthrift wealthy with no guarantee that they will discontinue their free-spending and “stupid” ways.
As Sabah economist Zainnal Ajamain puts it, Sabah and Sarawak are among the biggest contributors to the nation’s Gross Domestic Product but they are way down the list as far as development priority is concerned.
The issue is, he says, that these budgets are being planned and presented not for the prosperity of the people in Sabah who have never seen as much progress and development for the last 50 years compared to those in Malaya.
So what gave rise to this “crisis” budget as some have termed it?
The answer, to some extent, lies at the door of mismanagement and wastage in preceding years that was always papered over and shows no signs of going away according to those in the business community.
For them, the government has shown all the symptoms of head-buried-in-the-sand syndrome that it developed through political one-upmanship and shortsightedness and which has had a disastrous effect on development (forget about competitiveness) and caused long-term structural damage to the nation for which we have to pay the price.
“Sabahans need to treat this budget as a wake-up call and tell their leaders to fix all the cracks in the system that has been papered over for the past few decades … they must address the flaws in the system that has caused the state to remain under developed and without a coherent growth plan,” said a foreign investor who requested anonymity.
For John, a semi-retired businessman who still does “some small contract work”, the primary factor holding back the state economy is the lack of infrastructure.
He sees the current “austerity” measures rather than a basic infrastructure “stimulus” package for the state as a setback that will continue to hold up the state’s growth and limit investment.
Cronyism, special favours such as licences to politically-connected tycoons and corruption is a continuing disaster for Sabah and Malaysia, he said, while education, entrepreneurship and innovation continue to be mere afterthoughts when infact they are crucial to development,.
The fractious Umno-led Barisan Nasional government has not addressed these issues and perhaps is unable to due to a combination of factors – weak leadership, institutionalised, extractive economic policies, the politics that perpetuates it and plain greed. Sabah and Sarawak are examples of this.
Along with the new budget come questions of transparency and the process of how projects and contracts are doled out. It’s all hidden now, according to those in business and finance.
“The problem is a lot of these funds that go back by a circuitous route to the giver and then funnelled out of the country for investment elsewhere,” claimed an accounting expert.
“Just look at how projects and contracts are handed out. What is the selection process? Even something as simple as drain maintenance is mysterious.
“How does the system work? What is the contract and the frequency and much are they paid? All is hidden,” he complained.
He pointed out that despite the hundreds of millions of ringgit allocated to certain contractors to maintain state and federal roads in Sabah, potholes still pockmark the states roads.
Why? Have the contractors stopped work? If so, have they not been paid? What happened to the allocated funds?
Meanwhile economist Zainnal, in his criticism of the budget vis-a-vis Sabah and Sarawak said bluntly that it is a rip-off of the two resource-rich states.
The failure to end the cabotage policy that funnels all shipping of goods through the peninsula and favoured companies and keeps prices of goods in Sabah high is an example of the shakedown.
The “special” development projects announced are nothing but a whitewash that does little to raise the economy or development of the state, he adds.
All along the network of institutions in place both at federal and state level favours self-interest over public interest.
Self-interest has remained dominant for years now. But people are waking up.
The pressure can flow in the other direction if all join the battle on the side of public interest.
No comments:
Post a Comment