UMNO’S MAIDEN ADVENTURE IN SABAH

BY : MOHD JEFRI RADIUS

WHAT is the least known but important achievement in Sabah ‘s political history? No one could denythe fact that Sabah has emerged as the only State in the country with a record of 12 Chief Ministerssince the dawn of independence including those appointed for the post under the two–year rotation.

At that time, a Chief Minister was chosen and appointed from among the ruling BN component parties in Sabah with the blessing of the Head of State, to represent the Muslim Bumiputera, Non-MuslimBumiputera and the Chinese communities to incorporate a combination of power sharing for the sake ofuniting Sabahans regardless of race, creed and social belief etc. which was gradually abolished in 2004.

Former premier Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamed was behind the whole concept of imposing the system, which coincided with Umno’s maiden adventure to spread its wings into Sabah.

Dr Mahathir played a strategic game of political chess by moving his pieces across the board using the'“Divide and Rule Strategy' to checkmate and put an end to PBS glory and ego.

Dr . Mahathir was not politically aware of the socio-economic implication and the consequential results ofthe administrative concept, which he introduced in Sabah politics did have some adverse effect on thepeople of Sabah to some extend.

Historically, substantial sum of funds had been allocated to the State since the First Malaysia Plan wasimplemented . What was the actual amount spent so far? RM 100 Billion? It could be more. Whatever thetotal allocated funds spent, there is no doubt that that 'Hidden Hands' were also at play in controlling and managing these funds.

Therefore, it comes as no big surprise to see projects completed, but not meeting the specifications, including those left uncompleted and abandoned for several years at the expenses of tax payers money.

We expect the Auditor General will act more without fear and favour neither compromise in his duty , toprompt the Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission (MACC) which will subsequently probe deeply intodiscrepancies in the relevant Ministries which received the funds.

It is agreeable that the Government’s commitment to fully fulfill a Nation building destiny could not beachieved overnight. A number of significant factors need to be considered which include planning, formulating, feasibility studies, schedules of projects implementation and of course the delivery system etcjust to mention a few.

In Malaysia, both State and Federal Government play the equal roles together towards achieving thisprimary objective based on the availability of budgets allocated to the relevant ministries in question.

Rural development happened at a slow pace due to bureaucratic factors, the common known stumbling block, thus affecting the livelihood of most rural indigenous groups including the Muruts, who dominatedthe Interior Residency and the Rungus, who live in the Northern Region of the State, where poverty has turned its ugly head against these rural indigenous, who are still depending on the government of the dayto further improve their standard of living. Apparently, the primary aim at eliminating poverty is not the task of the State Government alone.

The Federal Ministry of Rural and Regional Development under Datuk Seri Mohd Safie Afdal is vested withsimilar roles as well to achieve this parallel objective. The fact is The Ministry has a wider scope in view ofits huge allocation of RM 16 Billion approved by Parliament last year to be fairly channeled for rural development nationwide within three years with effect from year 2011 to 2013.

Majority of these rural folks depend on subsistence farming carried out on small plots of lands. Mostvillages occupied by the hardcore poor in the State do not have electricity or piped water. They relied on kerosene lamps when night falls and gravity water for their source of drinking water which would get murkyduring rainy season.

The non–existence of basic amenities in most rural region of the State, reflects the governmentindifference towards improving the the quality of the rural folks.

The crystal clear rivers which were once the source of clean drinking water for the Muruts in the Interior Residency for example, have now become a thing of the past.

The conventional actions of Land Clearing for oil palm plantation and logging to extract timbers within thevicinity of water catchments area, had badly polluted the rivers. The quality of the river water in question is no longer safe for drinking , it is awfully murky and terribly dirty.

Retrospectively, on April 19th 2010, TV3 showed an aerial video footage of the milky and pollutedPensiangan River as a result of rampant logging is a case in point.

Ecologically, it may possibly take a cycle of another 100 years or even more before the natural purity of therivers could be fully restored.

The Trans Pegalan Villages comprising Kpg Sedomon, Kpg Mailo and Kpg Pantai Baru, which sharecommon and bad feeder road that had not been upgraded for ages linking with the main road at Kpg Marasak leading to Keningau Town 25 km apart is another example.

These villages are located within N.37 Sook State Constituency and P.182 Keningau Parliamentary constituency respectively. Before re-delineation or readjustment of the electoral boundaries, the villages in question were predominantly inhabited by the KDM communitities and part of the Keningau ParliamentaryConstituency for many years; but the longstanding problem of getting clean drinking water for thesevillages seemed to have been ignored or overlooked by the elected YBs, despite several changes of State government since independence.

Whether the current YBs representing the constituencies, both from PBRS, a BN component are aware of the people predicament and what they have done for them since the last election would be interesting to know.

Columnist Tan Sri Datuk Seri Dr Herman Luping has brought to light a clear relevant message in a coupleof paragraphs of his article “An ad campaign will be timely ” which reads, “ The question, however, is whether our elected representatives, Assemblymen or Members of Parliament are or have been doing their duties in their respective constituencies..... Have they been seeing or visiting their constituencies and seewhether the people’s needs in the constituencies have been met or granted. Many of the problems in thevarious constituencies are the unrepaired road network in the villages” (D.E May 27th May 2012)

The fact is CM Musa had repetitively directed all BN State representatives to go to the ground (TurunPadang) to get the messages across the board (Rakyats) on the substantial sum of allocations granted bythe Federal government to the State for economic and infrastructural development, simultaneously torender the necessary assistance wherever possible sought by the Rakyats.

It sound rather hilarious If our elected representatives have deliberately turned their deaf ears and blind eyes on relevant matters of public interest within their respective constituencies, as this would likely affectBN chances of retaining the seats in question in the coming poll, when people are smart enough to interpret the wisdom of Abraham Lincon which says “You can fool some of the people some of the time, but you can not fool most of the people most of the time."

We hope those paradoxical scenarios would not affect CM Musa ‘s ambitious visions and missions to turnSabah, The Land Below The Wind into a developed State by 2015 from becoming a reality, by virtue of hisstatement made during the presentation of the 2009 Budget of RM 2.778 Billion for the subsequent year;

“We have targeted year 2015 to make Sabah a developed State , looking forward to bringing improvementand betterment to the people, the Government is committed to meet financial obligations either by internalmeans through the strong financial standing or outsourcing for more Federal Fund.“ (D.E 15th November2008)

Currently, the development of Oil and Gas sector is progressing on large scale basis in Kimanis. BN StateGovernment has created a conductive investment climates which has in turn successfully attracted severalforeign investors into the State in a number of economic sectors.

Lately in march, an established Fortune 500 firm Darden Incorporated from the U.S had invested RM 2 Billion project into cluster farming (red lobster) in Semporna.

Malaysians in Sabah are looking forward eagerly to the effort made by the government of the day in pursuit of the developed State’s Status Quo. Perhaps, it is worth considering a second look in matters relevant tothe General Implementation of Infrastructural Development especially within the rural zones.

a)The methodology of implementation and delivery system must be conducted authentically andtransparently.

b)The allocated development funds must be well managed, utilized, distributed and monitored to serve itspurposes by a reliable appointed agency represented by both Federal and State Governments. The specialfunds allocated to each MP (RM One Million) and State Assemblymen (RM 400,000) granted under the 9th Malaysian Plan respectively are no exception.

c)Technical men comprising engineers (Civil, Mechanical, Electrical & Structural etc) must be assigned to conduct regular physical inspections to evaluate the progress of every government project from the initial start up until completion stages in both rural and urban constituencies, to ensure that the construction matches with the required specifications etc.

d)Payments of claims made by the respective contractors must be based upon the official verifications made by these technical men.

e) The system of awarding contracts by the process of special favour consideration or 'Closed Door' negotiated tender to corporate bodies or individuals, who lacked the experience and financial capacity, despite their affiliation with the ruling party or blessing from their political masters, must be reviewed and should not be encouraged.

The remaining three years will soon elapse in the year 2015 and will be cut short with an interval as speculation is rife now that the dissolution of the current parliament will take place any time although itsterm will only end on April 24, 2013; to pave the way for the 13th General Election widely termed nowadaysby many as The Mother of All Elections, to seek fresh mandate from the people including Malaysians in Sabah.

Pragmatically, the RM 4.05 Billion of State’s 2012 Budget unveiled by CM Musa recently was well lauded by many sectors, giving positive impression that his inspiring leadership has been instrumental in placing Sabah among the best financially managed States tagged with the Triple A rating in the country.

Over the years the people of Sabah have been seen the numbers of CMs, Members of Parliament and State Legislative Assemblymen changing hand one after the other including those representingconstituencies, where the poor natives dominate.

It is only fair that those who have served the community well during their terms of office be allowed to continue serving longer with the people supports, but not those who have been there for years, but did nothing or little other than to show their egos with their YB tags.

These politicians should be replaced or rejected at once, irrespective of whether they are aligned with theruling coalition or the opposition, to make way for several new faces having the potential and meeting thecriteria as the winnable candidates with the support of the people within their respective home groundconstituencies.

People are now fully matured with the wisdom to judge the backgrounds and credibility of leaders, who come in search of political pleasure either in the broad day light or after sun set.

The people are the best judges to determine the leaders, whom they think have the credibility with theproven records of such achievements, to lead the State and bring more robust economic growth for the State in the years ahead.

We Malaysian in Sabah expect nothing other than to see that the State would benefit from the Golden Fruitsof its 49 years of Independence via the Federation of Malaysia, whoever takes the helm of the StateAdministration after the 13th GE.

It will be a memorable moment and significant political history for every Malaysian in Sabah to be proud ofin the event that, this outstanding Visions and Missions could be achieved successfully and turned into reality one day. - Sabahkini