SABAH DISPUTES 'POOREST STATE' TAG

By: JOE FERNANDEZ

THE State Economic Planning Unit (EPU) in the Chief Minister's Department in Kota Kinabalu has a different angle from the World Bank (WB) on the incidence of poverty in the state.

In the Malaysian Economic Monitor (MEM) report released last Wednesday, the World Bank noted that Sabah, with 10 percent of the country's population, had 40 percent of the poor.

Disputing this in a press statement yesterday, the EPU said Sabah is not the poorest state in Malaysia, although it did not identify the state concerned.

Sarawak has long been considered the poorest state after Sabah, followed by Kelantan and Terengganu.

The EPU said that “certain sections of the local media and groups with vested interests had taken it upon themselves to sensationalise (the incidence of poverty in Sabah) with wanton disregard for the facts and truth”.

“It's a gross misinterpretation of the MEM report. The report does mention a significant reduction in poverty in Sabah from 1976-2004,” said EPU director Ismail Abdullah in elaborating on the statement.

Citing WB figures in the MEM, he stressed that the incidence of poverty in Sabah has dropped from more than 50 percent in 1976 to 24.2 percent in 2004.

“The WB has described this as an excellent achievement although there still exist pockets of poverty in Sabah as in Sarawak and other places in Malaysia,” he said.

The incidence of poverty in Sabah, Ismail said, further fell to 16.4 percent in 2007 and this fact was captured by the Household Income Survey (HIS) carried out by the Statistics Department. It would have fallen further if not for the financial crisis of 2008/2009.

He blamed the rise in cost of food, fuel and transportation for setbacks to the hardcore poverty eradication scheme.

Ismail did not differentiate between poverty and hardcore poverty but pledged that “the state government is targeting to eliminate hardcore poverty totally by the end of this year”.

The mean monthly gross income of Sabah households, according to the HIS, had increased from RM 2,593 in 2004 to RM 3,102 in 2009, “an average growth of 5.3 percent which is better than many states in Malaysia”.

Ismail did not comment on the MEM report finding that “people are paid poor salaries against the job they are doing. Those who are working may be poor not because they are not working but working in low-paying jobs”.

“HIS indicates that the number of Sabah households enjoying an income of between RM1,000-1,999 had increased substantially by 2009,” he said.

NKRA goals

Ismail agreed that the MEM was put together by the WB after a working visit to Sabah in September. He also agreed that the MEM was issued after the tacit approval and cooperation of the state government in line with the partnership programme between the WB and the Malaysian government.

“The partnership saw the WB providing policy analysis and advice as well as information on member-countries' experience, which included research and data collection,” said Ismail.

Apparently, the WB team also had discussions and consultations with a cross-section of individuals and groups, both from the private and public sectors, academicians and NGOs.

The WB team assessed the state's poverty eradication programmes such as projects under the Mini Estate Sejahtera and the micro credit scheme under the Yayasan Usaha Maju.

The latter is a state government agency providing small loans to poor and low-income groups, especially women to allow them to do small-scale businesses and economic activities that can provide sustainable incomes for them and their families.

Ismail said that Sabah would step up its poverty eradication efforts, including agropolitan projects in pockets of poverty like Banggi, Pitas, Tongod, Kota Belud, Tenom, Sook and Nabawan.

Under the National Key Results Areas (NKRA), the state government will embark on the development of the basic rural infrastructure in Sabah. This calls for the construction of 1,020 km of rural roads, and the provision of electricity and water supplies to 95 percent and 90 percent of the rural folk respectively.

Over 12,000 poor households in the state will get government assistance in the repair of their existing houses and construction of new ones.

The NKRA target for Low Income Households, said Ismail, seeks to raise the income level of the bottom 40 percent of households in the state through programmes in agriculture, business, jobs and training.