RAHMAN MUST APOLOGIZE TO LIM GUAN ENG

By : STEPHEN YAMAN

WHAT transparency is Sabah Barisan National Secretary Datuk Abdul Rahman Dahlan talking about when BN ministers and state executive councilors (excos) are not even declaring their assets as practiced by the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) ministers and state executive councilors?

On 12 January 2012 the Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng and state exco team made history when they publicly declared their personal assets. They are the first state exco team to publicly declare their personal wealth calculated before and after assuming office after the 2008 General Election.

In a media statement Lim said that the public declaration of assets “fulfills the personal and political commitment of the Penang PR state government towards reinforcing leadership with integrity in line with the CAT principles of competency, accountability and transparency.”

The public declaration of assets was not conducted by the state government but by an independent internationally renowned accounting and audit firm, KPMG. As an independent audit firm, KPMG is required to uphold the highest professional standards ensuring objectivity and impartiality before undertaking the task.

According to Lim, the assets declaration was to ensure a cleaner leadership in line with the CAT principles. The CAT principles entails measures such as a ban on political parties involvement in businesses that can lead to conflicts of interest, open tender system, a freedom of information law and declaration of personal assets.

The current method of disclosure is in accordance with the standard used by all civil servants, including filling up a form revealing all assets details – description and quantities of properties such as shop-houses, houses, bungalows, condo, apartments, terrace houses, flats, penthouses, factories and lands in Malaysia and overseas; investments such as shares, unit trusts and fixed deposits; and motor vehicles owned such as cars and motor cycles; all with costs/values.

Lim hopes that the media can publish the information of their assets in full. The Penang exco members wish to stress that they have no other sources of income except from their public allowances as public officials and ADUN.

Exco members allowances are obtainable under the Members of the Administration and Members of Legislative Assembly (Remuneration) Enactment 1980. The details of all the excos’ assets can be viewed at www.penang.gov.my.

This is the standard the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) will maintain when PR takes over the federal or any other state governments including Sabah.

Selangor is an excellent example of BN failures and two former chief ministers (CM) were in the middle of big controversies. Former CM Mohd Taib was caught by the Australian authorities with millions of dollars in his suit case and former CM Khir Toyo was sent to jail for corruption and abuse of power.

We are comparing apple to apple when we discuss Penang and Selangor run by PR and BN. In just four years, PR has done many improvements not seen during the administration of BN government in half a century!

With the amount of resources Sabah has such as oil and gas, oil palm, timber, land, et cetera, Lim recently said that PR can produce better results should the state have been run by PR after the 2008 general election.

You can just imagine Sabah compared with Penang in terms of resources – Sabah has so much to offer compared to Penang. Who is Abdul Rahman to refute and disagree with the facts that the World Bank has reported that “Sabah is among the poorest states in Malaysia”?

Abdul Rahman is talking about archives and what Sabah was like in the 50’s and 60’s. Then he must also look at Singapore in the 50’s and 60’s. In the 70’s Sabah and Singapore were at par. The currency of Singapore was equal. Today our currency is RM2.50 to the S$1.00 and Singapore has no foreign debt and huge foreign currency reserves.

What does Singapore produce to become what it is today? Can Abdul Rahman explain why Singapore is doing very well compared to Sabah? Sabah produces so many natural resources compared to Singapore. What happen to the natural resources or products of Sabah? Where did they disappear to?

If you look at the clean/rubbish free Singapore River – it is a big tourist attraction with beautiful shops and eateries around. Sembulan River at Karamunsing is very far in comparison – dirty water with lots of rubbish and foul smell. Nobody is interested to take an evening walk around Sembulan River and it is a waste of public funds.

Abdul Rahman is so outdated and ancient (in thinking) and therefore not worthy to be a person of high office. With Sabah vast resources, the results of Sabah would be tremendous had Sabah been run by PR.

The people are leaving Sabah for West Malaysia, Singapore or overseas due to the lack of employment opportunities. Even Labuan shipyard is not producing enough jobs for the people so many Sabahans have gone to Johore and Singapore shipyards for work.

Sabah oil and gas are being piped to Bintulu in Sarawak as if Sabah is not capable to handle its oil and gas. As a major oil and gas producing state, Sabah has no refinery. Why do Sabah ministers and MPs just keep quiet and have to depend on oil and gas refined products from West Malaysia?

Is Sabah not capable of managing our own refinery and producing our own refined products such as diesel and gasoline? What are Johore, Melaka and Negeri Sembilan producing to warrant oil refineries and petro-chemical plants in the state? What is Abdul Rahman doing in parliament about this unfairness?

Kota Kinabalu Member of Parliament, Dr Hiew King Cheu and his Pakatan Rakyat (PR) team have been going around Sabah for many months gathering information and evidences on the BN government mismanagement of public funds involving billions of Ringgit on so many projects covering roads & bridges, low cost housing, hospitals, education, water and electricity supply, and so on.

All these will be compiled subject by subject for the BN to rectify and fulfill before the coming 13th General Election. These are by no means “a slice of Sabah issues” as Abdul Rahman claimed.

In order to make fair comparison of what PR government can do for Sabah, the best solution for the people of Sabah is to change the “managers” of the state government to PR for the 13th General Election. With Sabah’s wealth of natural resources, PR would return to Sabah what belongs to Sabah and it is for Sabahans to see the real value of Sabah’s wealth.

Abdul Rahman must apologize to the Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng because the PR ministers and excess have made full transparency in their assets declaration. He must make a trip to Penang to check for himself and after that he should declare his assets to prove that he is clean as a member of MACC special committee.