Jeffrey paints bleak scenario on Sabah

The STAR chairman doesn't buy the BN propaganda that
the state is not in the grip of grinding poverty.

By Joe Fernandez

Sabah strongman Jeffrey Kitingan isn’t buying the increasingly shrill propaganda barrage emanating from the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition… that the influx of foreign labour into Sabah provides the clearest proof that there’s continuing development in the state and that it isn’t the poorest in the country as depicted by recent figures.

It’s an issue being flogged to death by both sides of the political divide in Sabah and Sarawak.

Jeffrey surprisingly waxed more eloquently than usual late this week in the local media on a nightmare scenario in the state. He hesitated in the temptation, for once, to go as usual all over the place. The opposition, he hastened to add, wasn’t being blind to the reality and accused the state government of being in a state of denial on Sabah’s “grinding poverty”.

He noted that jobless Sabahans, driven out by cheap foreign labour, are fleeing in ever increasing numbers to Brunei, Singapore and Peninsular Malaysia, among other places.

Meanwhile, their foreign replacements in the local job market abandon their employers not long after they arrive and often, even before or as soon as they do. They prefer to join other illegals in the state to do their own thing, including joining the underworld and underground economy, rather than put up with patently slave labour conditions.

In short, the foreign labour influx into Sabah is allegedly a thinly-disguised scam of sorts by desperate employers to dupe the authorities into compliance with short-term remedies.

And, there are also people smuggling and human trafficking going on under the guise of bringing in foreign labour.

The long-term answer lies in paying Sabahans a living wage to reduce reliance on foreign labour. However, employers are balking at paying even the minimum RM800 per month, far from being a living wage, announced recently for all workers in the state.

Patently, it’s a vicious cycle which sees the foreign poor entering the official statistics on poverty in the state as they continue, allegedly, to get their hands on MyKads by the backdoor.

Impoverished hordes

The Philippines and Indonesia in particular are seen as callously continuing to dump their impoverished hordes on the state by both the front and back doors. The World Bank itself, pointed out Jeffrey, cautioned in one study not so long ago that “Sabah was chasing its tail in poverty eradication given the influx of illegals and other foreigners”.

The message is implicit in the World Bank report cited by Jeffrey: Sabah has to better manage foreign labour influx to ensure that locals are not driven out of their jobs. Any foreign labour cannot be allowed to overstay and swell the number of illegals and the poor in the state. There must be better monitoring of the coastlines by the authorities for the influx of illegals and tighter rein on approving work permits. Obviously, all this will help mitigate the chasing of the tail scenario on poverty as painted by World Bank.

Jeffrey, the State Reform Party (STAR) chairman, doesn’t want to get into polemics with BN component parties on the poverty figures in the state. He thinks those interested can either Google the figures themselves or read the Hansard.

Still, he couldn’t resist making reference to a statement in the recent session of Parliament by Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Mohd Nor Yakop, on the poverty situation in the state. Mohd Nor surprisingly disclosed that Nabawan, with a 70% poverty rate, was the poorest place in Malaysia. Pitas in northern Sabah, which hitherto had that dubious distinction, was close, having in fact suffered an increase in poverty.

Mohd Nor’s statement, according to Jeffrey, tallied with the contents of a World Bank Report released in December 2010 in Kota Kinabalu to the state government. The report confirmed that Sabah and Sarawak were the poorest and second poorest states, respectively, in Malaysia.

It appears that the World Bank Report was based on figures from the Economic Planning Unit (EPU), which reports to Mohd Nor, and the respective State Planning Units in Kota Kinabalu and Kuching.

It would be surprising if the state governments concerned and the federal gvernment continue to be as candid in future with the World Bank on poverty figures.

Alternatively, the illegals with MyKads in Sabah are likely to be excluded in future figures on poverty in the state.

In that case, it would simply mean Sarawak would overtake Sabah as the poorest state in the country and the latter relegated to the category of second poorest.

Big picture

The political fallout from the World Bank Report 2010 continues to this day and isn’t likely to cease until the bank itself reports significant progress in Sabah and Sarawak on combating poverty.

Looking at the big picture, Jeffrey attributes the grinding poverty in Sabah to “internal colonisation policies being pursued in the state by Putrajaya”.

The continuing influx of illegals is only part of the story, according to Jeffrey.

He wants the state government to stand up to the bullying by the federal government and demand the return of the control of its oil and gas resources and, elsewhere, enter into negotiations for a fairer and more equitable revenue-sharing formula.

“It will be a pyrrhic victory if Petronas returns control over the oil and gas fields after they are depleted. This would be the Mother of All Theft,” Jeffrey warned in one statement in the local media. “We may be running out of time, perhaps 15 years at the most.”

Sabah, like Sarawak, belabours Jeffrey, are “Nations in Malaysia like Scotland in the United Kingdom”.

Hence, he sees no reason for Putrajaya to manage more than defence, foreign and national economic planning for Sabah and Sarawak. He wants the rest of the government’s work to be left to Sabah and Sarawak in line with their autonomy in Malaysia.

More money in the hands of Sabah and Sarawak, pleads Jeffrey, is the way forward in dealing with the grinding poverty in both states.