KL has Sabah under siege

By Awang Ahmad Sah Sahari
Awang Ahmad Sah
The Federal Government, speaking on behalf of all Malaysians, has been harping on the ill treatment by Israel against the people of Palestine for so long. Yes, the Israelists have cordoned off regions in Palestine, such Gaza, making if difficult to bring in food supplies. During the premiership of Hosni Mubarak in Egypt, food and medicine had to be smuggled through Egypt.

But Malaysia is notorious for being hypocritical, making statements at the international level and not realizing that what it is complaining about abroad is happening in Malaysia itself. The former PM, Tun Mahathir was wellknown for bashing the Jews, criticizing racial and religious oppressions in other countries, but in his own country the same things were happening.

What we are seeing currently is a case of the Federal Government criticizing Israel for putting Palestine under siege, but parallels of what Israel is accused of doing are taking place in Sabah. We may haven’t realized it but these things are happening right under our noses. The Cabotage Policy is one good example. With this policy the Federal Government is having Sabah under some sort of siege or oppression by preventing food supplies from getting to Sabah directly from their supplying countries. Ships are required to go to Port Klang first, even if such ships have to pass by Sabah waters to get to Klang. It is as if there is a wall around Sabah which only Port Klang can open for us to get our imported goods, and this way the goods become a lot more expensive. And who gets the benefits? Umno-connected contract shippers who are making millions from the sufferings of Sabahans.

Because of the Cabotage Policy alone many poor people are made to suffer even worse because of unnecessary inflation in Sabah and Sarawak.

This policy of economic discrimination by the Federal Government, has caused Sabah’s commodity prices to be a lot higher than in the Peninsula, has also caused us to lose the economic benefits of more foreign direct investments (FDIs) that should have come to Sabah. Because imported goods have to go to Port Klang first, investors are scared of starting manufacturing businesses in Sabah due to the unnecessary higher costs. The local manufacturers have long been complaining about this problem. This has resulted in scarce job opportunities, causing tens of thousands of our young people to go and find work in the Peninsula and Singapore. At the same time we have lost the benefit of trickle-down effects of otherwise higher employment and higher spending of employees in Sabah.

The difference in commodity prices is strange because in the higher-income society of the Peninsula, the prices of chicken is RM6 compared to RM10 in Sabah. It should be the other way round; chicken meat should be more expensive in the Peninsula because of the higher demand there (due to the higher population), and it should be a lot cheaper in Sabah where the demand is less (due to the much less population). But what’s happening is that we in Sabah have to pay a lot more for chicken meat due to the higher cost of rearing chicken – all due to the inflated prices of imported chicken feed due to the Cabotage Policy.

And the worse thing is people in the Peninsula, while spending less, are earning more than their counterparts in the Borneo states. Hotel boys in KL can earn up to RM1,600 or more (including tips) per month while their counterparts in KK would take less than RM1,000! We clearly have an economic system which is topsy-turvy, unfair and, to be honest, repressive!

And to make the whole situation even worse, we are being robbed off our natural resources which by now should have made extremely rich – our oil and gas, our lands (taken by Felda and Felcra), and our taxes which are in the billions per year.

Personally, even crying tears of blood wouldn’t be enough consolation for what Sabahans are losing and suffering from, and I can’t wait for the day when all these will be reversed, when justice will at last save Sabah from a bleak future.

1 comment:

  1. Let us please bark at the right "tree".

    It is NOT the cabotage policy that is causing the problems. It is the skewered way the balance of trade has been formulated by both State & Federal leaders.

    Sabah has been developed as a raw resource-rich region supplying only RAW materials to Malaysia & beyond. On the other hand, most of our consumer products need to be imported. Thus, we have one type of shipping coming into Sabah and another type of shipping going out. Both are one-way traffic. Thus, we have to pay 2-way costs for a one-way carriage.

    Sabah has no base industry production to support the development of a viable manufacturing industry. The Sabah Manufacturers know this but blame the cabotage policy, per se. Every industrial basic resource need to be imported into Sabah to produce any sort of manufactured product. Whereas, the basic industrial resources - oil & gas - is Sabah's own. These are exported as raw materials instead of being converted in Sabah for Sabah's industrial use. Thus, Sabah imports back the products from oil & gas at value-added prices.

    The belated Ammonia & Urea plant in Sipitang is 40 years too late, to exploit our oil & gas production.

    The result is more costly base industrial materials result in uncompetitive (i.e. higher cost) consumer products being produced by Sabah's manufacturers. These become non-competitive for export. Thus, our consumer products come in but nothing can be loaded into the returning containers. Thus, Sabah pays a 2-way "taxi" fare to buy our consumer products, via Malaya.

    Similarly, no foreign shipper will send goods to Sabah and ship back their containers empty. So, actually, that is where the cabotage policy come in to "save" Sabah. The policy forces Malaysian shippers to ship to Sabah, no matter if they incur losses due to returning empty containers.

    This fact, plus, the inefficiency of our ports, increases the costs even more. Imagine, what it costs shippers to have their entire crew fishing off Sepangar port for 5 days instead of sailing within 36-hours? Then, after 5 days to sail home with EMPTY containers that earn the shippers NOTHING!

    Thus, at FULL cost, Sabah consumers will actually be paying much, much more for ALL our imported products if not for the cabotage policy.

    Without the enforced "national service" imposed on Malaysian shippers, Sabah will be "enjoying" only regional products manufactured in Southern Phillipines, Kalimantan & Sarawak or whatever may be carried by barges & small boats.

    ONE interim solution is to share shipping costs with Brunei, who also import almost everything for themselves. Helping to fill a container ship with our neighbour will go some way to lower our overall cost. The devil is with the negotiation & efficient implementation of this arrangement with another sovereign country.

    Tax-free goods shipped via Brunei, comes to mind.

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