THE Federal Government should better focus on developing and promoting Sabah’s Mt Kinabalu, which is a World Heritage Site and a leading tourism icon for Malaysia, if it aspires to carry out a mega-scale eco-tourism development, instead of building a 100-storey tower that cost billions of ringgit.
“Why spend billions of the taxpayers’ money to create a tourist attraction in the form of a 100-storey building, when God had given us such a magnificent natural tourist attraction in the name of Mt Kinabalu, which no buildings in the world are taller than it?
“We are not Dubai or Las Vegas which are barren and void of any natural attractions that they need to create some manmade ones, instead,” contended Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) Information Chief, Chong Pit Fah.
He was responding to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak’s announcement while tabling the National 2011 Budget last Friday, that the proposed 100-storey tower would be part of the Warisan Merdeka costing about RM5 billion and expected to be ready by 2020.
Chong said SAPP was not suggesting that a tower be built at the Kinabalu Park but to better upgrade the existing facilities there such as the flora research centre and hostels at the park, besides developing new attractions in the vicinity.
He regretted that despite its World Heritage Status, the facilities at the Kinabalu Park leave so much to be desired.
“For so long such an important site for the country, Kinabalu Park and the majestic Mount Kinabalu has seen little development,” he said, lamenting that such was a saddening situation for the country’s premier tourism icon.
He thus said the Government should give better attention and to give a special allocation in the Budget 2011 for the development and promotion of Mt Kinabalu.
He also contested that the proposed construction of the tower near Stadium Merdeka and Stadium Negara in Kuala Lumpur that makes it as the tallest building in the country once completed would benefit the people in Sabah.
He especially reminded that existingly Malaysia already has a national icon in the name of the Petronas Twin Towers, which a bulk of its construction cost was funded by revenues generated from oil and gas found in Sabah offshore.
“Therefore, it’s time for Sabah to get back what is due to it,” he asserted.
He further contended that what Malaysia needs are better education, better health care, better public transportation, safer neighbourhoods, cleaner water, but not a taller building.
“We certainly don't need another white elephant. The government should prioritize the people's needs over the selfish needs of the privileged few. We saw too much of mega projects during the era of former Prime Minister, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohammed and today the rakyat are still paying for them, to the brink of the country declaring bankrupt soon as once highlighted by the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Seri Idris Jala,” he noted.
He also likened the government’s decision on the proposed project in this trying time, to the infamous French quotation “Qu'ils mangent de la brioche” (let them eat cake), purportedly uttered by the French Queen Marie Antoinette, during one of the famines that occurred in France during the reign of her husband Louis XVI.
He further described it as a clear indication that the Barisan Nasional-led government has completely lost its direction if not its mind, and is fast on the track of self-disintegration.
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