Development only part of Opposition struggle

By Daniel John Jambun

Sabah Chief Minister Musa Aman makes it seem as if only he and his party, Sabah Umno, can champion the development agenda for the state.

There’s more to life than the so-called development, or patchwork development, flogged by Umno.

Patchwork development is not the people’s idea of development.

Musa, as everyone knows, gets chicken feed from Putrajaya by way of development funds.

Of this, 90 per cent goes down the drain by way of leakages – into the pockets of nominees and cronies and fat cats -- and wastage of funds. That leaves not just ten per cent for the people but one per cent since nine per cent goes to the Baba in the AliBaba equation driving all so-called development projects in Sabah.

That’s the reason why there’s very little evidence of any state-driven development taking place in Sabah especially in the kampungs.

An analogy best illustrates the patchwork approach to development.

We see a poor man – read the people -- in an old torn shirt. We could buy him a new shirt which costs just RM 10 since this amount has been made available by Putrajaya.

But we decide not to buy him the shirt.

Instead, we give RM 1 to Baba to do something about the shirt and pocket the remainder RM 9.

Baba, likewise, pockets 0.90 sen and uses just 0.10 sen to patch the poor, old man’s shirt and sends him on his way until the next time when his shirt needs patching. We remind the old man not to forget to vote for Sabah Umno which is “the only party capable of bringing development – patchwork -- to the people”.

The opposition, according to Sabah Umno, doesn’t have a clue about development and besides where would they get money for development? Umno, unlike the Opposition, has money, the people are told. The Opposition can only cakap kosong.

Umno forgets that the money in the government’s coffers came from the people. The money does not belong to their grandfather or the party to do with it what it likes, at its whims and fancies.

If and when the Opposition forms the state government, it too will have access to the government’s coffers to bring genuine development to the people and not patchwork development.

The Opposition will not be cowed by Putrajaya, like Sabah Umno, and will instead demand the restoration of the state’s autonomy which calls for the Federal Government to stick to only three areas viz. defence, foreign affairs and national economic planning.

By restoring the state’s autonomy, the Sabah’s revenue will automatically stay in the state as it cannot be taken away to Putrajaya. The state government only needs to pay a fair share for the upkeep of the defence forces, the foreign affairs ministry and the expenses involved in national economic development.

By Sabah’s revenue – at least RM 25 billion a year -- staying within the state, we need no longer quarrel like stray mongrels over the scraps that Putrajaya throws our way.

Sabah Umno has degenerated into a party of stray mongrels instead of looking at the big picture and getting the state’s relationship and politics right with Putrajaya.

The state can get even more revenue, at least RM 25 billion a year, from the oil and gas industry.

Already, the Sabah Law Association has researched constitutional law and is of the opinion that the Petroleum Development Act (PDA) is unconstitutional.

If so, the oil agreement which is based on the PDA is null and void.

Still the Sabah Umno Government pretends to be deaf, dumb and blind and does nothing about kicking out Petronas and taking back our oil and gas industry.

  

Of Malaysia’s national budget of nearly RM 200 billion for this year, almost half or RM 100 billion came from Sabah and Sarawak.

Yet, both Sabah and Sarawak were allocated only RM 4 billion each this year from the national budget.

We don’t know whether these miserable funds have really been received by the two state governments or it was merely an announcement on paper.

Why should Sabah and Sarawak contribute nearly RM 50 billion each every year to the national coffers only to get back a paltry RM 4 billion each?

Is our money to be used solely to look after Peninsular Malaysia?

Musa should stop his hollow propaganda on development and instead do something about the continuing erosion of the state’s rights.

Besides focusing on retaining our revenue, the Opposition will kick out all Peninsular Malaysian-owned gaming companies and Ah Longs who are draining the economy and driving our people to bankruptcy.

We will also kick out Felda Sabah and take back the nearly 350,000 hectares NCR land which the Federal Government agency has stolen from the Natives of Sabah.

We will also take back all the NCR land in Sabah owned by Peninsular Malaysian-owned plantation companies in Sabah.

We will strictly enforce the laws against non-Natives and foreigners taking control of NCR land.

Last, but not least, an Opposition-run state government will reverse Putrajaya’s internal colonisation of Sabah and Sarawak, demand the Federal Government comply with the four constitutional documents and/or conventions related to the state’s participation in Malaysia, and regain the state’s self-determination of 31 Aug 1963.

There’s much to be done but the Sabah Umno state government appears oblivious to all this and instead continues with its wayang kulit to hoodwink the people.

The Sabah Umno leaders are getting richer and richer while the people are getting poorer and poorer.

It was the World Bank which pointed out in Kota Kinabalu in Dec 2010 that Sabah was the poorest state in Sabah. Sarawak, according to the World Bank, is the second poorest.

The Sabah Umno state government is shouting itself hoarse on development.

In that case, why is Sabah the poorest state in Malaysia after nearly 50 years?

Surely, anyone can do better than Sabah Umno in bringing development to the people!