Sabah govt should reject federal gazette on Sabah's cultural and natural assets

KOTA KINABALU - The Sabah Government should vehemently reject the proposed gazetting of Sabah's prized tourist assets under the National Heritage Conservation Act 2005 because such a federal gazette is a back door grabbing of Sabah's heritage and putting Sabah's tourism and natural assets under Putrajaya control, said former chief minister Datuk Yong Teck Lee.

He warned that in future, the management of these Sabah assets would be subject to federal interference.

"The correct law to gazette Sabah's nature and cultural assets is the Sabah Heritage Conservation Enactment 1997. It is the same Sabah law that has ensured protection of the Likas Bird Sanctuary (KK Wetlands), Padang Merdeka, Chong Tain Vun City Park, Atkinson Clock Tower and other cultural and natural assets of Sabah. Sabah already has our own heritage conservation law eight years before the federal government got theirs.

Yong

Yong, who is also Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) President, calls upon the Sabah government, particularly the Ministry of Environment, to assertively use Sabah's laws (such as the Sabah Cultural Heritage Enactment 1997) and reject the proposal by the federal minister of Tourism Dato Seri Nazri to gazette Sabah's cultural and nature assets under the national act.

He said in fact, Maliau Basin, one of the ten sites mentioned by Dato Seri Nazri, is already gazetted under the Sabah Cultural Heritage Conservation Enactment 1997. The other sites mentioned by Nazri are also already protected under other Sabah laws. There is nothing new for the National Heritage Act 2005 to add other than to only make it possible for federal to interfere on the management of these prized tourism sites.

"I recall the efforts of past federal ministers to grab Sabah's rights. Like Samy Vellu who tried to take control of Sabah's water supply, Lim Keng Yeik who tried to control Sabah's timber trade, another minister who tried to extend the Local Government Act so that our local authorities came under federal control. Now it is Nazri's turn.

"We should learn from the experience of a former Chief Minister who now expresses regrets over the federalisation of Labuan. Sabahans should be vigilant against the creeping "back door federalisation" of Sabah," said Yong.