Political stability message stressed by King, Hajiji

Published on: Sunday, March 06, 2022

By: Datuk John Lo

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TWO recent quotations are worthy to note. The first is from our King at the opening of Parliament: News report says that “Yang di-Pertuan Agong Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah today urged MPs to maintain the political stability achieved after the memorandum of understanding inked between the government and the opposition last year, saying this will ensure the success of the nation’s development agenda for the benefit of the people and the country as a whole.

The other is by Hajiji. “This is our goal, to achieve political stability in Sabah so that we can focus on developing the state,” said Hajiji in a statement.

Both of them have stressed the critical importance of political stability in Malaysia and Sabah to achieve economic progress.

No doubt about it, Sabah has suffered from excessive politicking and little focus on economic development.

Same at the national level in the last several years.

Orderliness in politics and economics are essential for development. Unfortunately, quarrelsome politics has become “the evil twin” because of irresponsible politicians in Sabah.

Sarawak has fared much better for a good reason. They have better and development inclined politicians.

https://www.malaysianow.com/news/2022/02/28/maintain-political-stability-achieved-through-govt-opposition-mou-agong-tells-mps/

https://www.dailyexpress.com.my/news/187703/hajiji-welcomes-parti-kdm-s-desire-to-join-grs-/

Unite to develop Sabah.

Our King has said what he has to say because of his grave concern on the prevailing highly unsatisfactory political scenario. If the trend is not arrested, Malaysia will face an uncertain future and the economy has already taken a serious hit.

It is going to be worse. Putting a stop to this political prank as our King has urged, Malaysian leaders should unite so that they can address the pandemic recovery and now, possible fallouts from the war between Russia and Ukraine which may spin out of control.

Sabah is lucky as Hajiji has, from the time he took office, emphasised on political stability which can only be achieved by having political unity.

This he did by being inclusive as the CM for all Sabahans and has invited the opposition YBs to join him in developing all the constituencies.

It is the responsible thing for all politicians to join him – focus on development and economic well-being for all Sabahans.

Hajiji’s pragmatic economic leadership has shown results.

The facts speak for itself.

[a] positive economic growth at 3.8pc to 4pc in 2021 even when there is a raging Covid pandemic and grave global uncertainties.

[b] RM4.4bil of investments have flowed into Sabah. 3rd largest in Malaysia.

[c] Record high government revenue of more than RM5bil.

[d] Investor friendly policies have created a new confidence in Sabah.

[e] Top of the list is that Hajiji has changed the mindset of Sabahans from excessive politicking to development oriented.

It takes pragmatic leadership and political courage to change the 35-year-old entrenched political system and turned around the Sabah’s economy within one year.

Sabah’s economic recovery has begun and will gather momentum.

Sabahan can expect much more in 2022 and beyond. RM25bil investment is the target for 2022.

Good economic leadership, robust economy and care for Sabahans’ future generation.

To have a leader with the ability to manage and keep the economy moving in a positive manner is a blessing that Sabah needs very much.

To have one who is also caring for the future generation’s education/human capacity is triple blessings. These attributes do not necessarily go together automatically.

A political leader who possesses both attributes is a rarity in Sabah. Sabahans who have lived long enough will testify to this fact.

Having turned Sabah’s economy around in 2021 and mindful that Sabah’s future is dependent on the quality of education of our young generation, Hajiji has introduced a slew of assistance/grants for students and schools that will have long term benefits:

[a] RM200 per students belonging to the B40 group to meet their examination fees.

[b] Grants for all government and religious schools for improvement of facilities to upgrade students’ performance.

[c] RM2,000 grant per year for all parent teacher associations.

[d] Students who have gained acceptance for university entrance will be granted RM2,000 and for diplomat courses RM1,500.

[e] Grants for computers will be given to each head of family in the B40 group.

[f] Special grants for students who excel in sports at state, national and international level.

[g] Grants for wheel chairs and beds will be given to the poor from the Welfare Department.

[h] 24 graduates have been awarded to participate in the SMJ [Sabah Maju Jaya] Fellowship Programme to strengthen Sabah’s human capital.

[i] RM24mil has been allocated in 2022 budget for the development of human resources, some of the programmes will be done in collaboration with private sector like Shell.

Continuing economic growth, more effective assistance.

Hajiji’s investor friendly policies has kick started the 2021 economic recovery. More such policies from him will sustain the current positive economic trajectory into 2022 and next few years.

Hajiji has the right priority to invest in educational assistance and human capital as they are the most important foundation pillars, the corner stones, for Sabah to achieve meaningful long-term progress and rapid uptake of the Sabah Government’s digitisation plan.

With improving economic performance and bolstered by political stability, I am confident Hajiji, being the caring CM for the younger generation and B40 group, will continue and may, with improving economy and expected increasing government revenue, even broaden the scope of his assistance/grants and other social programmes.