Jeffrey: Sabah poor due to KL's actions
Published on: Saturday, November 17, 2012
Kota Kinabalu: Sabah is already poor due to the internal colonisation policies of Putrajaya and yet the Philippines and Indonesia continue to dump their poor on the State, said Star Sabah Chief Datuk Dr Jeffrey Kitingan."This is like adding insult to injury," he said in a statement here Friday.Dr Jeffrey said Chief Minister Datuk Seri Musa Aman should summon the courage to stand up to the bullying tactics of Putrajaya.ADVERTISEMENT "We need to get back control over our fast depleting oil and gas resources. We need the money more than the Federal Government and the Malayans."It will be a phyric victory if we only get back control of these fields after they are depleted. Petronas is not going to keep these fields when they run dry," he said.Dr Jeffrey said Musa should also enter into negotiations with the Federal Government to come up with a fairer and more equitable revenue-sharing formula based on the fact that Sabah has autonomy as a nation in Malaysia.ADVERTISEMENT "The Federal Government should only handle defence, foreign affairs and national economic planning when it comes to Sabah and Sarawak, and we can take care of the rest. "The National Cabotage Policy should be abolished.
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All these steps coupled with the resolution of MyKads issued dubiously to illegal immigrants are the keys to alleviating the poverty situation in Sabah," he said."Sabahans especially the vast majority has been suffering for so long under the BN Government since 1994."Already, Upko is calling for the return of the BN policy of rotating the Chief Minister's post. Soon this call will become a clamour among all BN component parties."Suffice it to say that Minister in the Prime Minister Mohd Nor Yakop last revealed the poverty numbers on Sabah during the recent session of Parliament. The salient point that comes to mind from Mohd Nor's statement is that Nabawan, with a 70 per cent poverty rate, is the poorest place in Malaysia. "Other places in Sabah are not far off and this includes Pitas which, at one time, had the dubious distinction of being the poorest place in Malaysia," he said.Dr Jeffrey added that Mohd Nor's statement in Parliament tallied with the contents of the World Bank Report released on Dec 2010 at the Shangri-La's Tanjung Aru Resort here to the Sabah State Government.The report, based on figures from the Economic Planning Unit and the respective State Planning Units in Kota Kinabalu and Kuching, confirmed that Sabah and Sarawak were the poorest and second poorest states respectively in Malaysia.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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In Sabah's case, matters were compounded by the fact that the impoverished hordes from the Philippines in particular and Indonesia are entering official figures on poverty by way of continuing to obtain MyKads via the backdoor.The dubious MyKad situation has even led the World Bank to warn in an earlier Report that "Sabah was chasing its tail in poverty eradication," he said.