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Monday, July 29, 2013

Stop giving Sabah ‘patchwork’ solutions

The diesel crisis in Sabah has exposed the ineffectiveness of Sabah's security blanket along the state's eastern corridor, claims a local assemblyman.
KOTA KINABALU: The smuggling of diesel that has led to a shortage in Sabah has exposed the ineffectiveness and shortcomings of the Eastern Sabah Security Command (ESSCOM) and the Eastern Sabah Safety Zone (ESSZONE).
“Theoretically, there should be no smuggling (of diesel) if the ESSZONE patrolling is effective.
“If diesel can escape detection, one fears for the safety of Sabahans when it comes to illegals coming and going into Sabah,” said state assemblyman Jeffrey Kitingan.
Kitingan contended that if the diesel shortage is due to rising demand, then this should have been projected and adequate supplies provided for.
“This shortage is not new. It’s a frequent occurrence and should have been projected and provided for,” he said.
He equated the ongoing acute diesel shortage in Sabah and strategy to overcome it as a perfect example of the “piece-meal, patch-work policies” in existence in the country which are put in place by those “who don’t understand” the problem.
“While the just announced request for an additional eight million litres diesel quota may help clear the queues at petrol stations, it does not resolve the long term problem,” he said.
Kitingan was responding to Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak’s announcement of an addition eight million litres “solution” to the diesel crisis in Sabah, over the weekend in Kota Kinabalu.
He also urged the Sabah government and its leaders to emulate their counterparts in Sarawak and reject verbal announcements by the Federal leaders and insist on written approvals (of additional eight million litres diesel quota).
“More often than not, these announcements are nothing more than announcements when these federal leaders go back to Kuala Lumpur.
“For example, after promising to build the Labuan bridge during the GE13 election campaign, the federal leaders are now singing a different tune that the Barisan Nasional only promised to undertake a study into the feasibility and benefits of the Labuan bridge and did not actually promise to build it.
“If this is part of the ‘Janji DiTepati’ BN manifesto, Sabah will remain and continue to remain the poorest state despite its abundant natural resources particular oil and gas,” he said.
Strengthen delivery capacity
What has been shown, he said, is that Sabah and Sarawak remain unimportant, worthy only of “patching” to resolve long-standing security, development and welfare issues.
The under-development, poor infrastructure and lack of basic amenities in Sabah is often blamed on its size, which is equivalent to that of nine states in the peninsula.
Compounding the problem, according to Kitingan and other critics of the peninsula’s treatment of Sabah, is that it is looked at as a far-flung colony of Malaya and its resources and wealth need to be taken back “home” to fund its development.
“The PM must firstly recognise and help strengthen the delivery capacity of the Sabah government and remember that Sabah is a nation in Malaysia and not equal to tiny Perlis (Sabah is 90 times the size of Perlis) or the other peninsula states,” he said.
He further stressed that along with this recognition, the federal government must return 40% of the net revenues collected from Sabah and be transparent about these collections.
“Revenues of Petronas, multi-national petroleum companies and other corporate entities which derive their profits from Sabah should be acknowledged as revenues from Sabah.
“Whether it is RM40 billion or RM4 billion collected a year, 40% of the net revenues should be returned to Sabah. There are no excuses.
“This additional revenue for the Sabah government will improve the economy of Sabah by leaps and bounds and help alleviate and reduce the poverty levels of the people,” he said.
He continued that the federal BN government should stop holding the Sabah government and Sabahans to economic ransom who could be bought and used every five years during elections.
“Sabahans must also wake up to face this reality and not accept RM200 bribes and BN’s 1Malaysia blue water tanks in return for their precious votes,” he said.
Kitingan also questioned the sincerity of the federal authorities especially since it had a parallel, ‘federal-linked’ government in Sabah that circumvented or influenced state affairs.
But, Kitingan also blamed MPs from Sabah and Sarawak for failing to demand that their homeland is treated fairly and justly by the federal government in terms of development and welfare assistance and should no longer accept crumbs.
“After all, some RM40 billion and RM18 billion in oil revenues were taken from Sarawak and Sabah respectively in 2012,” he said.

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