By Calvin Kabaron

Discrimination against Sabah by the federal government
in order to develop Malaya is a tragedy and worthy of
national attention, says a lawyer.

KOTA BELUD: Peter Marajin, the man under fire from irate Kota Belud MP Abdul Rahman Dahlan for criticising him, stands by his claim that the MP is all talk and no action.

Speaking a day after Rahman hit out at him for negatively assessing his performance, Marajin reiterated that the MP had not done much in his constituency.

“He does not care about the padi fields in Mukim Kelawat but he keeps on telling people the district is Sabah’s “rice bowl” or “jelapang padi”.

“He didn’t even answer my contention that there are hundreds of acres of padi fields in Kelawat which are neglected as they are dependent on rain. His Umno-led Barisan Nasional has not provided proper irrigation for the area.

“What they are doing with public money is pumping it into the existing irrigation system inherited from British time like the Wokok Dam or in the Tempasuk plains.

“They aren’t doing it in adjacent Kelawat, simply because they do not want to do it. Maybe the British would have done it if they were still here now,” he said in response to Rahman’s retort to his earlier criticism.

On Rahman’s contention that the BN government could not do anything much about building roads in the district because landowners refused to give way, Marajin a practising lawyer, said that it showed that the MP was ignorant of duty as well as of the law.

He said it was unbelievable that an MP would put forward a lame excuse such as this not to proceed with development projects.

“Hasn’t he ever heard of the Land Acquisition Ordinance for public purpose? Landowners are adequately compensated under the law (for the acquisition of their lands).

“Since he would like to talk on national issues more, why did he not talk about having a six-lane highway from Kota Kinabalu to Kota Belud just like the highways in Malaya,” said Marajin who is also a supreme council member of Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP).

Discriminating against Sabah

He said discriminating against Sabahans on economic development and depriving them of the state’s rich natural resources despite taxing them in order to develop Malaya, was a tragedy and a worthy national issue for the MP to bring up in parliament.

“When the entire population of Kota Belud cannot see the development Rahman is talking about, then they must also be blind, like me.

“It is amazing… it appears only Rahman can see,” said Marajin taking a poke at the MP’s taunt that he was unable to “see” the development he (Rahman) had brought to his constituency.

Rahman, who is also Sabah BN secretary, also accused Marajin of making accusations without going to the constituency to see for himself infrastructure the BN government had put in place there.

“The federal government has easily allocated RM120 million, and [the development] is there. If he cannot see what has been done, he has to see an optometrist, he better check his eyes,” he had told FMT.

Rahman said that since the approval of the allocations, various agricultural methods including tunnelling and irrigation measures had been carried out.

The back and forth between the two politicians comes as Marajin, who is active in Kota Belud, both as a politician, lawyer and also a church leader, has built up his base in the constituency.

He is being touted as SAPP’s candidate for Kadamaian state constituency which is one of the three state seats under Kota Belud parliamentary seat.

The other two are Tempasuk and Usukan, all currently held by BN but under stiff challenges by the increasingly opposition-leaning electorates in the areas.