CRONIES FIRST, PEOPLE LAST!

SABAH Progressive Party (SAPP) stalwart Chong Pit Fah has ‘bestowed’ the State administration the slogan of ‘Cronies First. People Last!’, in contrast to the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak’s “People 1st. Performance Now” slogan; over the recent decision of the State government to give the ‘monopoly’ over river sand extraction in the State to one of its subsidiaries-Sabah Economic Development Corporation (Sedco).

He claimed that many thinking members of the public were of the view that the said decision was done in bad faith with ulterior motive which ultimately benefits a group of well-connected individuals who are the cronies of those in power.

He further claimed that he has sufficient proofs to substantiate such notion.

“As we all know, river sand is an essential commodity for the construction industry, and it’s hard to get nowadays due to its dwindling quantity besides a stringent control by the State Environmental Conservation Department. Hence, its price has inevitably gone up drastically over the years, thus making it a very lucrative industry now.

“And now it seems that the Barisan Nasional (BN) government is going all out to grab the entire piece of cake from the private sector, just to benefit a handful of people,” he elaborated in a statement issued here on Sunday.

The SAPP Information Chief cum SAPP Kepayan division chairman lamented that the BN government had over the years given the exclusive right to many essential consumer goods like sugar, rice, cement to many of its cronies.

“The BN cronies are literally taking control of almost everything in our daily life, from the kitchen right to outside the house,” he lamented.

He quipped that the BN Government should perhaps seriously consider taking control of the funeral parlour business in the country, to cater a more affordable funeral service to the poor people.

“The BN government can then come up with the “1BN Funeral Service”,” he suggested.

He then cited the negative impact of the monopolistic move imposed by the State government on cement, where the people, particularly developers are not allowed to purchase cement from anywhere else but Cement Industries Sabah (CIS).

“Unfortunately, the supply of cement in the State is still not consistent and the developers as well as contractors are at the mercy of CIS,” he pointed out.

Chong continued that the reason cited by the State government for giving the full control over river sand extraction in the State to Sedco i.e. to have a better control over illegal river sand mining, is questionable.

He said this was especially true, since it has no authority or whatsoever on sand extraction, which actually comes under the Mineral Ministry in the Federal and the Land and Surveys Department at the State level.

“What can Sedco do? They don’t even have the authority to stop illegal sand dredging activities,” he said, adding that the government’s move had created more problems than solutions.

He contended that the authority can stop illegal sand mining without having to give Sedco the monopoly through proper monitoring and enforcement of the laws, especially if there is no corruption.

Chong reiterated that the authority should be going after the illegal sand dredging operators instead of penalising the whole industry including the genuine and licensed operators by no longer giving them the license but only Sedco.

He noted that previously, the sand dredging operators were given the Temporary Occupation Lease (TOL) in order for them to occupy certain areas in the river identified for sand extraction.

“So how did the government come to term with this? Does this mean all the previously approved TOLs are going to be revoked? We receive calls from the river sand extraction operators that their TOL period is supposed to be valid until July 2012.

“SAPP wants the authority concerned to clearly explain the terms of reference of Sedco’s appointment as sole license holder of the sand extraction in Sabah,” he said.

- Sabahkini