For more than a year, Trump has made numerous threats against China and other countries, including US allies in Europe, Japan and South Korea, even to emerging countries like Vietnam, Cuba, Venezuela. Unilaterally, he withdrew from the Paris Accord on environment, nuclear treaty which has been worked out between Iran, EU countries and INF with Russia. In short, he has been busy picking fights and bullying every country. China is his main target, rattling about balance of trade, currency manipulation, unfair trade practices and IP theft. He could have brought all these up to WTO, IMF, World Bank which are under American control. Instead, he has chosen unilateralism. He is becoming a lonely man very fast as most countries have ignored his below par behaviour and mutterings.

On July 15, the National Audit Department released the Auditor-General’s 2018 Report Series 1. It contained the findings of an audit conducted last year that looked at various aspects of the public service and government activities at both the federal and state levels.

I AM writing this on the fifth anniversary of the downing of MH17. In the news, our Transport Ministry issued a statement to say that the Malaysian Government will not rest until those who are responsible for shooting down the airliner are brought to justice.

So much resources, so much poverty. So much potentials, so few opportunities. These two contradictions best describe Sabah’s peculiar economic circumstances. Sabah is still one of the poorest states with a very low GDP per capita. We used to be No. 2 during the Berjaya era. Since then, Sabah has a down-slide to the bottom, not much better than Kelantan. Why is this so when Sabah has the best soil, biggest acreage of planted oil palm, vast deposits of oil and gas.

We are warming up for WordPower. We had our Press Launch at the Palace Hotel, and I am happy to say that it went extremely well. I like to think this may have had something to do with the banana bread I baked for our guests, not a crumb of which was left. Nor were any of the biscuits made by our Marketing person, Emily Barner. You see – we aren’t just pretty faces. .

It is common knowledge that physical activity makes for healthy mind and body. And for young children, it is crucial to developing their muscles and bone structure. Yet in many Malaysian cities, the “play” has gone missing from playgrounds. .

I congratulate Nash Hon, the newly elected SGCC [Sabah Golf n Country Club] president for the manner in which he conducted the EGM for budget on 22 July 2019. Very wisely, he has kept to being professional and allowed members their say. The ambience of this EGM was indeed like a breath of fresh air in comparison to those in recent years when the discussions were often acrimonious.

INDONESIAN President Jokowi announced the establishment of Special Economic Zones in Eastern part of Indonesia, including East Kalimantan/Sulawesi on 2 April 2019. This announcement by Jokowi should be taken in context with his efforts to upgrade and construct 15 new airports, many of which are in Kalimantan/Sulawesi. .

During the early days of independence, Malaysian economy as a whole and Sabah specifically have been very dependent on the first sector economy which is natural resources, such as unprocessed agricultural and mining products among others. Tin, oil, logs and rubber for instance have long become among the important products which contributed significantly to the nation’s income and the external sector. .

THIS publicity business is not easy.  We need to spread the word about WordPower – it’s not long now, and we want everyone to know about it! Tick, tock, tick, tock.