KOTA KINABALU: A regional business council leader agrees with Sabah deputy chief minister Bung Moktar Radin that serious efforts must be carried out to rejuvenate Labuan’s economy.
However, Labuan BIMP-EAGA (Brunei-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines East Asean Growth Area) business council chairman Azhar Othman does not believe this should involve allowing Sabah to manage the island’s economic affairs.
“I am not convinced Sabah has the capacity and capability to manage Labuan,” he told FMT.
“Labuan should be given autonomy and sufficient budget to manage itself.”Bung, who is also the Sabah Umno chief, told the Dewan Rakyat on Monday that Putrajaya should allow Sabah to manage Labuan if the federal government was unable to do so.
The Kinabatangan MP said Labuan was no longer an attraction as the only tax-free items there were chocolates, adding other items were expensive and Sabahans no longer saw the need to travel to the federal territory.
He urged Putrajaya to make Labuan a “truly” tax-free haven under the 12th Malaysia Plan to kickstart its economy and uplift the lives of the people who are struggling without jobs.
“If the federal government does not see that the territory needs to be developed, then let Sabah manage it,” Bung said.
Azhar concurred with Bung’s assessment that Labuan’s future was now at a crossroads.
He said the federal government needed to be more serious not only in developing Labuan but also solving challenges faced by the people there, like the continuous rise in consumer goods prices, the high unemployment rate and the stagnant economy.
“Returning Labuan to Sabah is not the right move,” he said. “The people of Labuan should be given more autonomy to make their own policies and decisions.
“The administrative framework of Labuan should be re-examined to expedite development and improve project implementation.
“I urge the federal government to consult local leaders on their preferred direction on the future of Labuan.”
Labuan MP Rozman Isli said the island, which is under the federal territories ministry, critically needed a structural change to progress from its current state.
He said there was no need to place the island under Sabah’s jurisdiction, considering the state government’s own tight finances, but Sabah should be part of Labuan’s planning process.
“Labuan should be made a special administrative region. It should be an international island city with its own government,” he told FMT.
What was immediately needed, he said, was to directly put Labuan under a high-powered committee chaired by the prime minister first before going further to be an autonomous special administrative region.
“And in that committee, the state government should be well represented because the Labuan economic plan must be part of Sabah’s future, too,” he said, adding that this was to ensure better development coordination with Sabah.
Rozman said the Sabah chief minister should also be part of the committee.
“Labuan should be made well known internationally with its own special investment policies, which should be different from the national ones,” he said.
At the moment, he said, Labuan had not been getting sufficient budget and attention, which had resulted in a lack of interest from investors.
“And we still need further improvements on connectivity like a Labuan-Sabah bridge and a modern new integrated port.”
Political economist Firdausi Suffian, however, said Sabah should “move on” from the Labuan issue.
“There are so many development issues unresolved relating to infrastructure in Sabah, and you want to help others resolve their problems?
“I think we should reprioritise our focus. The Sabah government right now should focus on the state development agenda,” he said.
Firdausi said the scores of issues in the state, such as water supply, roads, internet connectivity, schools and irrigation, were preventing Sabah from achieving its economic development targets. - FMT
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