Landslides closed major roads in Penampang and Tuaran cutting off traffic and some 11 schools in various districts in Sabah sending thousands of students home and inundated towns and town fields. A school and village houses in Tuaran were destroyed by the floods.
Yet, such catastrophic events never even made the prime time news on RTM and TV3, only on regional news. However, the closing of 5 schools in Kelantan received prime time television coverage.
Added, the reports of a Sarawakian student being deprived of treatment at a major government hospital in Johor Bahru as though she was an illegal immigrant from Sarawak.
With each growing day, it is as if Sabah and Sarawak are not part of Malaysia but appendages to the Peninsula or Malaya, and Malaya is Malaysia?
The response or rather non-response of the federal government and now Petronas to the flood situation and flood victims in Sabah leaves much to be desired. Sabahans are shabbily treated and there can be no excuses. It is not as if Sabahans want to be given television sets, refrigerators and other aid but to be treated fairly and equally and as equal Malaysians.
“Is it so difficult for the PM and the federal government?” ask Dr. Jeffrey.
To add salt to injury, Petronas gave another RM5 million as additional aid, comforter sets and RM150 Petronas Kedai Mesra vouchers for the flood victims in Terengganu and Pahang. In 2014, Sabah and Sarawak will be contributing RM26.6 billion and RM45 billion to Petronas and the federal government in oil revenues while Terengganu’s contribution is probably a small fraction. If based on revenue contribution, Petronas would have to contribute at least RM50 million to the flood victims in Sabah and Sarawak and complete house furniture and RM1,500 Petronas Kedai Mesra vouchers per family
The unfair and unjust treatment of Sabahans and Sarawakians as second class Malaysians and Sabah and Sarawak as far-flung colonies across the South China Sea by the federal government is very obvious.
It is as though the federal government of Malaysia is the federal government of Malaya and looking after their immediate States under them in Pahang, Terengganu and Kelantan. Of course, if this is the mindset and action of the federal government, Sabahans and Sarawakians cannot complain as Sabah and Sarawak are not part of the federation of Malaya which gain independence on 31 August 1957 whereas Sabah and Sarawak formed Malaysia with Malaya on 16 September 1963.
Even ordinary Umno members and district leaders in Sabah are questioning the inaction of the federal government on their plight from the floods. While their fellow members are getting television sets and all sorts of aid, Sabahans are getting only mud and mudslides from the floods.
Will the PM awaken from his kangkung hallucinationand the federal government be mobilized with a change of mindset from their “couldn’t care less attitude” to treatSabahans fairly and equally. At the same, further fuel is added to the raging discontent in Sabah and Sarawak whether they should remain in Malaysia or part ways amicably or reviewed and re-structured as a true federation?
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