‘Power hike a slap in the face for Sabah’

If TNB and SESB could not operate efficiently, then the government should end their monopoly and open the electricity sector to other players, says Jeffrey Kitingan.

KOTA KINABALU: Star Sabah has taken the Barisan Nasional state government and federal ministers from Sabah to task for failing to stop the raise in power tariff for Sabah.

That party chief Jeffrey Kitingan said he was shocked that the BN ministers from the state had meekly consented to the increase in charges when the cost of goods and services in the state were already much higher than in the peninsula.

“The Sabah government and the federal ministers from Sabah should have fought for the exemption of any increase for Sabah.

“Why have they not done so? Are they so lame, useless and powerless or do not care for the people in Sabah?” asked Jeffrey.

He said the Sabah government and Sabah leaders had been shown up as weak by Sarawak Chief Minister Taib Mahmud who announced that there would be no increase in electricity tariffs in the neighbouring state.

Jeffery charged the federal and Sabah governments along with their ministers of having failed the people in Sabah by “turning a blind eye” to unwarranted increases in the electricity tariffs in Sabah without solving the real problems.

He described it as a gross misconduct and mis-governance on their part which created a “lose-lose-lose” scenario for Sabahans and described the TNB-managed SESB as a utility whose acronym has come to be known as “Sabah Everyday Sure Blackout”.

The Star Sabah chief who is also the representative for Bingkor in the state legislature was commenting on the 16.9% increase in power tariff for Sabah and Labuan as compared to 15% increase in the peninsula starting next month.

Jeffrey said the governments and ministers did not seem to understand that they are first and foremost “holding trusteeship as well as fiduciary and social responsibilities to the people”.

“They cannot put themselves in the shoes of TNB and SESB who are corporate bodies and not government agencies responsible for power generation, maintenance and supply,” he said.

He contended that if TNB and SESB could not operate efficiently, then the government should end their monopoly on power supply and open the electricity sector to other players.

“Let it be known that there are other capable Malaysian companies that are operating power projects in other countries and many are doing well without government subsidies,” he said.

He said there was “absolutely no justification” for any increase in rates since it had already been increased in Sabah two years ago while consumers in the peninsula had been spared an increase since 1986.

Double whammy

Jeffrey described the increase as a ‘double whammy’ for Sabahans in addition to the already high cost of living mainly due to a shipping policy that is said to be directly responsible for higher prices of items in Sabah compared to the peninsula.

In addition, he said, the situation is made even worse in Sabah by the lower minimum wages for workers compared to their counterparts in the peninsula.

“All these are increasing the burden on the people and affecting their daily lives,” he said.

He said the increase of 16.89% for Sabah compared to 15% in the peninsula, was not only an additional burden but also a slap in the face for Sabahans and Sabah leaders.

All the differences, he said, contradicted the Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak’s 1Malaysia policy.

“The different rates of increase show that it is 2Malaysia, one (policy) for the peninsula and the other for Sabah and Sarawak, the so-called equal partners in the Federation of Malaysia.

“Why can’t the federal government be fairer to Sabah and ensure that the rate of increase, if at all and which is absolutely unjustified, be the same as the peninsula?”

Jeffrey also pointed out that with the lower rates in the peninsula as compared to Sabah, the federal government would be spending another RM14 billion for consumers there, but not in Sabah.

“Why is there no corresponding support for Sabah?” he asked.

Jeffrey noted that even consumers on Labuan were not spared despite being a federal territory and were being charged the same as Sabah consumers.

“Why isn’t the federal territory of Labuan not treated equally with the federal territories of Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya. Why the double standards for Labuan? If it is a true federal territory, the rate of increase should be the same as the peninsula,” said Jeffrey.

IPPs enjoying subsidy

The situation was even more unjust, he said, since Independent Power Producers (IPPs) in peninsula using natural gas pumped from Sabah and Sarawak are subsidised to the tune of some RM19 billion a year while Sabah and Sarawak do not get such a subsidy.

“This does not even include the RM26.6 billion that is going to Petronas and the federal government in 2014 from Sabah’s oil and gas,” he said.

The federal government could solve this injustice, he said, by transferring RM1 billion in subsidies to consumers in Sabah.

“The RM1 billion will give 833,333 households in Sabah free electricity of RM100 per month for a whole year,” he said.

The current situation that Sabah finds itself in, he said, raises questions about the advantage of having a Minister of Energy from Sabah in the cabinet when he could not fight for some concessions for consumers in Sabah.

But Jeffery also added that both the federal and Sabah governments and Sabah Umno and BN leaders are equally to blame for having failed Sabahans.

He urged voters not to remember this failure when in comes to electing their future representatives and to give the opposition a chance to form the next federal and state governments.