ALMOST every Sunday in the Daily Express Sunday Forum, there are critical pieces by the people of Sabah and Sarawak about the Federal Government. Last Sunday, there were two articles by well-known writers, Datuk John Lo entitled “It is time to Liberate Sabah” and another by Johan Arifin entitled “What shared prosperity as Petronas Grabs 95 per cent”.
These are telling articles reflecting the general sentiments of Sabahans and Sarawakians.
This sentiment is also shared by the 60,000 or so people (Sabahans) still in Labuan. Sabahans and Sarawakians know very well that Labuan is now “Padang Terkukur”, as for the last 40 years there has NOT been a single economic project implemented successfully. It is not understood what the Ministry of Federal Territories and the Labuan high powered Committee comprising Civil Servants, all based in Kuala Lumpur, have been doing.
In Labuan itself every single Chief Executive Officer assigned to the post, along with all the Heads of Department, have Titles of “Director-Generals”, and the 3,000 or so Civil Servants of whom 95pc are from Malaya. Yet with such a team they still incapable of managing an island of just 22,000 acres.
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This compared to say Hap Seng that manages several Estates that is up to SIX times the size of Labuan and is well managed, makes a profit and and does it with just one General Manager.
The day will come when we Sabahans and Sarawakians will include Labuan as part of the campaign to be free from all the ignorant, incapable and manipulative people that is suppressing economic progress.
The response by the Labuan Corporation to numerous letters written in the Daily Express Sunday Forum, that those Economic Development Projects meant to jump- start the Labuan economy were not implemented mainly because the developer could not fulfil environmental requirements.
This is merely an excuse. The facts remain that those in “authority” are just simply incapable of even giving a damn – that is that. Afterall, it is the same people who claim that Labuan has the highest income per Capita in Malaysia.
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Among the response by Labuan Corporation is that no reclamation is allowed. If one was to think logically, this excuse is even more absurd.
Labuan is surrounded by reclamation works: there is Muara (Brunei), just across the bay, Sipitang also just across the bay and Tanjung Aru (Kota Kinabalu) just up the coast.
Interestingly Vietnam has reclaimed over 10,000 hectares, most for the benefit of European tourists to Vietnam.