Sabah: Land of the poor, soon to be auctioned

By: Joseph Wilfred Lakai

Chief Minister (CM), Datuk Musa Aman is still in a state of denial with regard to poverty in Sabah. He had set a date of the end of 2010 for “Zero poverty”. This is sadly not attainable.

From the state richest in natural resources and opportunity before forming Malaysia, today after almost 50 years later we have the dubious honor of being the poorest state followed by Sarawak.

Musa, announced that the government had managed to reduce the number of people in poverty in Sabah from the figure of 16,944 during March this year to now at 16,696 on 19th of May, 2010, a decrease of 248 persons.

In this 2 months period the government reduced poverty by 248 persons. Which means 128 persons per month. So given that no more persons become poor, to reduce 16,696 persons to “Zero poverty” will take another 10 years? It is not something to be proud of.

The state government also stated that “Officially” poverty had reduced to 16 percent from 23 percent in 2004. Compared to Sarawak’s poverty level of 8.0 percent and a National poverty level of 5.9 percent in 2004 (UNDP figures).

Musa said the hardcore poor rate had gone down to 3.7 percent in 2007 from 6.5 percent in 2004.

UNDP study also notes about 23 percent of households in the state are still living below the national poverty line income, while child poverty rates stand at 42 percent. More than one fifth of the population aged six and over has never been to school.

In 2006, former Housing and Local Government Minister Ong Kah Ting had said that Sabah’s higher cost of living was the reason that its poverty level was the highest in the country.

Sabah holds the dubious distinction of having the highest poverty income line in urban areas, which is RM886 per household. Ong had said Sarawak fared better at RM777 a month per household while Johor (RM624), Kedah (RM625), Pahang (RM583) and Perak (RM584).

Former Women, Family and Community Development Minister, Sharizat Abdul Jalil noted on 29th April 2010 that “Sabah had 34.26 percent of the (total) hardcore poor families in the country, ie. 15,293 families”.

Besides 44,643 hardcore poor families in the country, another 55,957 families are categorized as “poor” and a further 86,399 families are categorised as “mudah miskin” (borderline poor).

This official figure of 34.26 percent hardcore poor in Sabah selectively disregards urban poverty and must be much higher.

In 1990, the incidence of poverty in Sabah was given as 34 percent, with rural levels reaching 39 percent and urban 15 percent. Figures for Sarawak were a much more moderate 21 per cent overall, with rural poverty 25 percent and urban 5 percent.

When examined by ethnic group (or at least Bumiputera against Chinese), Bumiputera were seen to be still experiencing higher levels of poverty – 41 percent in Sabah and 29 percent in Sarawak.

Musa’s figure of 16 percent poor is still much higher than in Sarawak or the National levels. Let us take Musa’s figure of 16 percent out of Sabah’s population of 3.25 million, which means that 520,000 persons are below the poverty line.

In my independent study with Datuk Frankie Chong, SAPP Vice President cum Chairman of SAPP Pedalaman, we found that Sabah’s poor actually number 1.2 million (37.0 percent). Who is fooling whom here?

The rakyat is being fooled of course as poverty and its eradication is a political timebomb and it benefits the government to keep the actual poverty numbers under-reported and under-wraps.

Despite the government’s claim that hundreds of millions have been spent on poor eradication programmes, and they only manage to reduce the poverty of 248 persons.

Sabah’s true poverty level is far higher than the figures given by the Federal Government, due to the large numbers of stateless locals as well as the continued and unchecked influx of illegal immigrants who cannot be tracked because they do not possess a MyKad.

As these people live outside the legal framework, they are not included in the official poverty figures, which is as a result much higher and worse than the government wants us to believe.

Only when the government admits the true scope of our poverty problem, tackle the illegal problem especially the issuance of MyKads to illegal immigrants, and stop the cronyism/ Corruption/ Nepotism that includes the encroachment of big well connected companies on the Native Customary Lands (NCR) of the locals, only then can we make proper poverty eradication programmes that would work.

Joseph Wilfred Lakai is Vice Chairman of N34 Liawan CLC Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP)