Living dangerously in Sabah

Kinabatangan, a longtime BN stronghold, is lagging in roads and infrastructure.

KINABATANGAN: Sabah’s ever-present infrastructure woes continue to take a toll on life in the state.

This time the precarious condition of a road leading to Kampung Sungai Rotan in Bukit Garam here has forced users to dice with injury or worse daily and they are furious.

For hundreds of locals, this is the only route to the main road leading out of the area. It’s either use it or stay in the village.

For vehicles it is even worse. Any slip up behind the wheel at this stretch of the village road and there is the threat of serious grave consequences.

One villager Hamsah Lakian told FMT that the stretch of the road collapsed last year but nothing was done by the relevant quarters to repair until today.

He said that even their elected representatives had taken notice of the seriousness of the problem.

“I hope they will open their eyes to see the danger and not wait until something happens to start pointing fingers or doing the repairs,” he added.

Hamsah called on the area’s elected representatives to visit the area during their “turun padang” programmes and see for themselves the deteriorating condition of the affected road and initiate immediate repair.

Another villager Ali Mahamud complained that elected representatives came with promises during election but failed to implement them.

“Our elected representatives can be forgetful persons but not the people. Don’t expect the locals to buy their sweet talk the next time they come asking for the people’s support,” Ali warned.

BN stronghold

He said he doubted that the bigger projects promised would be fulfilled when such a simple problem as a major link like a kampung road could not be repaired.

Kinabatangan District is located in Sandakan Division and it is Sabah’s largest district with area measuring 10,936.73 square Kilometres.

It is considered a Barisan Nasional stronghold with the national coalition front maintaining a clean sweep in the (one) parliamentary and two state seats in the past polls including the recent 13th general election.

Pekan Kinabatangan is situated about 108km from Sabah’s second largest city, Sandakan. It is the heart of the Kinabatangan District’s commercial activities and administrative centre.