Sabah Blackout: Cancel Tariff Hike and Further Reduce by 16.9%

KOTA KINABALU - “The federal government’s move to increase electricity tariffs by 16.9% in Sabah without solving the real problems has backfired in their face with the state-wide blackout on Friday that affected more than 500,000 consumers, mostly by more than half a day” said Datuk Dr. Jeffrey Kitingan, STAR Sabah Chief in response to Friday’s massive blackout even affecting the Federal Territory of Labuan.

“In early December, it was stressed that SESB also known as Sabah Everyday Sure Blackout had no justification to increase electricity tariffs without solving the real problems” emphasized Dr. Jeffrey.

The failure of the Sabah government and the federal Minister from Sabah in not fighting for exemption of any increase for Sabah like in Sarawak has returned to haunt them by a stroke of divine intervention, less than 20 days after the tariff hike.

The Chief Minister of Sarawak is probably staring at the picture of his counterpart in Sabah and grinning from ear to ear.

The reasons put forward for the tariff hike was to improve services in Sabah and that there was a reduction in SAIDI from 2,867 minutes/customer in 2009 to 557 minutes/customer in 2012 together with SESB’s boast that the number of complaints on electricity disruptions in Sabah fell 6% up to November 2013 from 25,298 complaints compared to 23,747 in 2012.

With the state-wide blackout lasting more than 5 to 6 hours, the SAIDI would probably have tripled to more than 1,500 minutes in a single blackout.  If each of the more than 500,000 consumers were to lodge a complaint, the complaints would have risen more than 22 times or more than 2,100% to 523,747 from 23,747.

There is now absolutely no justification for the 16.9% tariff hike and the federal Minister for Energy who is from Sabah should make an immediate announcement to revoke the tariff hike with immediate effect.   If he fails to do so, it can only mean that he does not care for Sabah consumers.

The issue left to be decided is the amount of compensation to be given to Sabah electricity consumers as it was widely reported that there were widespread losses even in ordinary households.   There was even an instance of a food operator having to throw away 50 kg. of prawns.   If it were tiger prawns, it would have cost RM6,000 since the CM has himself reported a price of RM120 per kg.

It is only fair for SESB to offer reasonable compensation to all electricity consumers in Sabah for the state-wide blackout.   It is the only decent thing that SESB should do.   A corresponding 16.9% reduction in tariff rates would not be unreasonable although it would not be adequate for many consumers including for the 50 kg. of prawns.

As for the bosses in SESB responsible, it may be an opportune time for them to consider taking early retirement and hike up Mount Kinabalu to freshen up for their failed tariff hike.

As for the Ministers, both federal and State, may be even others by virtue of collective Cabinet responsibility, it may be an opportune time for them to assess their sincerity and responsibility towards Sabahans and take appropriate action.  Let the people in Sabah judge them by their actions.   In India, the Ministers would probably have resigned.  In Japan, the Ministers would probably have committed suicide by hara-kiri, plunging their sword into their abdomen and disemboweling, suffering a slow painful death.  In Malaya, they would probably have turned it into a racial issue and blame it on the Chinese, Christians and opposition leaders.