Many Things Rotten in Sabah: Dr. Jeffrey

KOTA KINABALU - “If Marcellus of Shakespeare’s Hamlet was alive in Sabah today, he would have concluded that “Many things are rotten in the State of Sabah”.   Tun Dr. Mahathir should have extended his article “Something Wrong” in Malaysia to include “Many Things Rotten in Sabah” and his contributions in making them wrong” said Datuk Dr. Jeffrey Kitingan, STAR Sabah Chief, commenting on the former’s Premier’s post “Something Wrong” in his blog.

There are many complaints from the people in Sabah, also in Sarawak as well.   In fact, many people have decided that things are so rotten that it is better to join the fight and “Keluar Malaysia”.          

Many businesses are complaining that an Umno politician and his group are monopolizing contracts in Sabah and depriving others of their fair share or end up getting minor subcontracts.   There are also complaints that an Umno politician and his associates are getting timber concessions and log exports that there is insufficient logs to feed the local timber industry.   The people can decide whether these complaints are true or rotten or not.

Many ordinary Sabahans are complaining that Sabah (and Sarawak) have been wrongly down-graded to be the 12th (and 13th) state of Malaya and losing their rights and autonomy in the Federation of Malaysia, which is nothing more than the Federation of Malaya with a change of name and the adding of Sabah and Sarawak as additional internal colonies.

Then there is the infamous “Project IC”, “Project Mahathir” or “Ops Durian Buruk” or whatever name that resulted in foreigners being given dubious ICs/MyKads and becoming instant Sabahans/ Malaysians and becoming Umno members with voting rights.    These foreigner Malaysians are running all over Sabah and now spreading to the Peninsula and have infiltrated government service and security units.

From the provision and support of muslim insurgents in Southern Philippines by covert government operations, Sabahans and Malaysians are now feeling the backlash with massive security and social problems.  They range from the Lahad Datu armed intrusion, cross-border kidnappings, smuggling of contraband and drugs, rising crime from murder, car-jackings to break-ins, theft and robberies.  They have even spread to the Peninsula with fake Sabahans committing crimes and murders.

Mahathir said that for business, delays can kill.   Well said but in Sabah’s case, the delays by the federal government in resolving the illegal immigrants have proven that the delays have killed.

On the economic front, almost everything in Sabah is rotten, in fact many are rotten to the core to the extent Sabahans form 40% of all poor Malaysians with Sabah the poorest State in the nation.  The result of lack of industries have caused an exodus of Sabahans to work in Malaya and Singapore.

Sabahans are clamouring for the return of ownership or at least an increase in the oil revenues derived from Sabah’s oil and gas resources and complaining that Sabah Umno and BN leaders have failed to secure anything despite Sabah BN’s additional manifesto promising 20% oil royalties.   These leaders are so scared of losing their jobs, perks and lucrative contracts that they dare not even voice out Sabahans’ demand for the additional oil royalties despite the BN Manifesto.

To add to the poverty levels, Sabah has been deprived of the constitutional 40% of the net revenue derived from Sabah.  This deprivation has led the Sabah government not being able to implement additional programs to alleviate poverty and kick-start many development projects which would have driven the Sabah economy and improve income levels.

To rub salt to the injury, the federal government has fixed the minimum wage in Sabah at RM800 which is lower than in Malaya while at the same time prices in Sabah are much higher than in Malaya due to the crippling cabotage policy.    Further hardship is expected when Sabahans start paying an additional 6% in GST to the federal government from April 2015.

Although Sabah is languishing at the bottom, it was once the second richest in the nation.   In 1974, Sabah even had extra reserves to lend money to the federal government to start Malaysia Airlines after splitting with Singapore Airlines from Malaysia Singapore Airways.

Despite its huge contributions of tens of billions annually to the federal coffers, Sabah has been left way behind in development even lacking in basic amenities and infrastructure.   In many areas, there is no clean treated water, no electrification and no proper roads despite umpteen years of election promises.

A Malayan federal Works Minister even had the audacity to state that the roads in Sabah and Sarawak are equivalent in standards to roads in Malaya.   Even the proposed Pan-Borneo Highway will have to wait until 2024, even then if completed will be without any dual carriageway, only with overtaking lanes.

The roads are so bad that days ago, a sick had to be pull-carted by buffalo from a village in Northern Sabah because there was no proper road.   It was not even a bullock cart that existed in Malaya in the 1960s but long gone now.   As the incident and picture went viral in the social media, the government now agrees to build the road which only cost RM800,000.00, 52 years after the formation of Malaysia, even then after the heart-rendering incident.

Right from politics, political franchise to projects, everything is controlled from Umno Kuala Lumpur.  After the huge Project IC of flooding Sabah with illegal immigrants dubiously given ICs and voting rights, Umno Malaya has now monopolized the “mining” industry in Sabah.   To Umno Malaya, everything in Sabah “is mine”.

This “mining” is different from Mahathir’s mining issue but the end-result is the same, nothing is for Sabahans except crumbs and miserly hand-downs from Putrajaya.

And there are many more complaints about Sabah which would give it a rotten smell.   The federal government will have plenty to worry if it does not hear out and address the complaints.   Sabahans may not want to get use to the rotten smell but choose another way out of the Federation.


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SOMETHING ROTTEN

Feb10th 2015
1. Marcellus in Shakespeare’s Hamlet remarked that “something is rotten in the state of Denmark.” Perhaps from the complaints being made by Malaysians about Malaysia one might say there is something rotten in the state of Malaysia.

2. Many of these complaints reach me. I hope I am permitted to detail them here in my blog. People can decide whether things are rotten or not.

3. Some people complain that the Government seem unwilling to pay them for work done for the Government. There would always be a dispute whether the Government owes them anything at all. If the court decides that the Government has to pay there would be a dispute with regard to the amount.

4. Then there would be delays, sometimes for years. For business, delays can kill.

5. Then there are those whose contracts have been withdrawn for unknown reasons. Often it is given to someone else even after the contract documents have been signed.

6. Then there are those whose project submissions have been passed on to others. The others make bids at a higher price but the documents are identical. Frequently the first proposer or bidder has to go through tender process. This is only right of course. But the proposer as first bidder would find others have submitted what looked like his submission. Frequently he fails or has to raise his bid because the others have quoted higher prices or lower prices as the case may be.

7. Delays in getting approval costs. The reasons for the delays are frivolous and cannot stand scrutiny. Sometimes to speed up approvals gratification is offered. The party that offers pays and will not complain or report. It is unhealthy. You will need their services again and you may be blacklisted. Or you may find all kinds of obstacles.

8. Long before the permits or whatever is due to be terminated, notices for immediate termination were given. The authorities want to take over the business. The person concern may appeal. He is going to lose money. Sometimes the appeal is not answered, the authorities cannot be met and if meeting is possible, the applicant may be told that his loss is his problem, not the concern of the authorities.

9. Sometimes development permission cannot be given because some authority or powerful person wants the land. There is no one to appeal to i.e. no one with real authority. Even if you know who wants the land, you cannot do anything. He is too powerful.

10. Government-owned entities employing more than a thousand workers are suddenly given no job because some foreigner has been chosen to get the contract. The workers were sacked. And the Government facilities may just close down or get some minor subcontract from the foreign contractor.

11. Local companies with adequate competence are not considered for contracts because foreign companies can do the job, may be better, may be no better. Frequently the local companies are said to be too small to do the job. Lots of money flows out of the country.

12. We go all out to welcome FDI. But Malaysian entities with lots of money will not invest at home. They prefer to go buy properties in foreign land. The prices paid are sometimes indefensible. Again lots of money flow out of the country. And when profits are made, taxes are paid to the foreign country. Even when the money is brought back, no tax is paid to the Malaysian Government.

13. There is a need for investments at home, but that is not for local companies. Malaysians institutions with oodles of money would do better by buying foreign technology companies and bringing them home to improve our technological capacities. But there is no encouragement for doing this.

14. If a Malaysian company is in trouble, we seem to prefer bankrupting them and selling them to foreigners. Proposals to rescue by Malaysian white knights are not welcome. Due diligence cannot be done by the white knights for some unknown reasons.

15. After tin was exhausted it was assumed that there would be no more mining in Malaysia. Then we found that we still have lots of other minerals. But mining for these is not for Malaysians. They are for foreigners only.

16. No attempt is made to add value before export. Just dig the earth and export the things raw. And forests disappear along with the mining.

17. There was once some idea about being business friendly. Not anymore. The state competes with the private sector when the private sector seems to be doing well. With the power conferred on the state, there is no way the private sector can win. They lose. But the States also lose simply because business is not the business of the State. Still the trend and preference is for nationalisation.

18. Big is beautiful. So why have small business? Kill them. But big businesses were once small. If you kill small business, then they can never grow big. So how do we get big business if we kill them when they were in their infancy?

19. There is a lot of talk about the importance of Small and Medium Enterprise. But what is happening on the ground does not reflect this importance.

20. Today the actual administration seems less important than the extra administrative bodies which have been set up. This is very confusing to the public. It seems to be confusing to the administrators also. They do not seem to know what they are expected to do when policies and decisions are made by the special bodies.

21. Critics are being demonised by the mainstream media, by certain individuals and politicians who had lost. Critics risk their property being seized and auctioned, They may be bankrupted.

22. I am now being accused of forcing the Government to do things which should not be done.

23. And there are many more complaints about the state which would give it a rotten smell.

22. But not to worry. We will get use to the smell.