THE FEASIBLE SOLUTIONS TO POVERTY

By : MOHD JEFRI RADIUS

WOULD it be possible to reduce the critical and crucial level of poverty from infesting deeper into the strata of the Sabah’s poor rural indigenous by the turn of this decade? The answer is affirmative only when the government of the day has the authentic political will and commitment to turn those visions and missions into reality.

It is still fresh in the minds of every living Malaysian in Sabah that during the 1994 State Poll, contesting BN component parties had jointly staged One Election Manifesto which focused specifically on the Sabah Baru Plan, whereby BN promised to totally eradicate and uproot the level of poverty in the State accumulatively unsolved during the “Dark Ages of PBS Administration, from 33 per cent at that time to Zero Level by 2000 if it got the mandate to rule the State.

Strategically, BN was successful to take the helm of the State administration, when a couple of winning candidates from PBS switched camp in favour of BN. However, upon reaching the breakeven point of the 21st century i.e year 2000, the Sabah Baru Plan did not materialise neither implemented to the optimum due to a number of reasons, which possibly take a considerable amount of time for lengthy explanation.

Over the years, the percentages of poverty is still increasing double fold at a very crucial and alarming level in most rural regions. Imagine what would this mean to our poor rural natives in the event that the Global Economic Crisis is turning its ugly head on us? Perhaps the scenario will be horrific beyond description!

Lately The World Bank Report revealed that about 40 per cent of Malaysia’s hardcore poor is found in Sabah listing it is the second poorest State in the country with the household income of less than RM 800 per month, which is below the poverty line scale.

The paradox is former premier Tun Dr Mahathir Mohammed disagreed with the outcome of the report, which according to him is prejudice and bias instilled with hidden political agenda, which looked like leaning more with the tendency to favour the nation’s former Deputy PM Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, who once filled the slot as Chairman of the World Bank, to lead the country.

Judging from Sabah’s extensive geographical features compared to other States in Malaysia except Sarawak, the task to fully eradicate the roots of poverty would be a time consuming process to undertake and a lot huddles need to be overcome.

It would depend upon the wisdom of the State leadership to convince the Federal leaders on the need of the justified allocation to be fully utilised for this specific objective.

The BN State Government under the present leadership of CM Datuk Seri Musa Aman has got the ball rolling to implement the relevant socio–economic programmes within the State’s financial resources, aimed at reducing the poverty level, as the way of getting the poor segments of the population out of the stigma.

CM Musa’s credibility and strategic effort to fulfil this goal could not be questioned as Musa has been proven instrumental in bringing Sabah to attain the followings under his administration namely:-

a) In the restoration of the State’s financial status from RM 300 million after the 1997-2000 Asian Economic Crisis to RM 2.4 billion recently.

b) In turning Sabah as the first State Government in the country to get the Triple A rating from RAM Service Sdn Bhd, which had conducted professional evaluation and assessment showing the State’s ability to honour its commitment.

c) In leading the State to attain the status as a Shining Star in the Auditor General ’s Report, the only BN controlled State in the country sharing the distinctive credits together with two Opposition controlled States of Penang and Selangor for scoring well on exceptional fiscal management for year 2009.

Generally, Musa has played a significant role towards attaining those status in question in his capacity as the Chief Minister of Sabah, apart from bringing robust economic growth in the State. A SUCCESS THAT NO SABAH CM HAS ACHIEVED, THIS IT IS A WRITTEN FACTS AND FIGURES THAT COULD NOT BE DISPUTED TO THE ENVY OF OTHERS.

The non availability of basic infrastructural facilities in the rural regions, as a whole would further explain why the quantum of poverty still persist to the extend that many rural kids are not able to get access to better education and have instead become school drops out upon having attained just the lower secondary level.

Comparatively, there is a wide gap separating the rural and urban students in terms of the statistical achievements of outstanding results in every PMR, SPM or STPM examination held annually.

In the words of CM Musa, while officiating an opening ceremony of presenting letters of offers to study in Universiti Institute Teknologi Mara (UITM) recently, he was quoted as saying “The high poverty rate is closely related to the level of education that each individual achieves in his or her lives. Hence, the best key to bring the Bumiputras out of poverty is to provide access for them to pursue their studies at higher institutions” (Poverty is linked to education level : CM, The Daily Express 21st May 2011).

Factually, the State Government is not the sole authority committed with the responsibility in weeding out poverty in Sabah, The Federal Ministry of Rural and Regional Development under Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Afdal is vested with similar roles as well to achieve this parallel objective except that the ministry in question is given a wider scope to focus on nationwide in view of the ministry’s huge allocation totalling RM 16 billion approved by parliament lately, to be fairly channelled for rural projects development throughout the country within a period of three years.

Particularly in the respective States with the highest level of poverty in the country including Sabah, where the hardcore poor is not merely found among the rural communities living in the hinterland, but it exists in a number of fishing villages located along the coastal regions of the State, as can be seen from several documentary films or videos produced locally.

For instance in 2008 TV3 had shown a live footage of the poor rural folks living at the Northern Region of the State without basic amenities namely electricity and clean drinking water.

Documentaries showing the poor natives living in the State’s interior, where the Muruts dominate is no exception etc., thus exposing to the outside world, the tip of an iceberg of the hardcore poor scenario found within the State.

Majority of these poor rural folks depend on subsistence farming as the mode of livelihood, carried out manually on their respective small plots of lands to produce cash crops, which bring small returns of income virtually insufficient to make both ends meet for their families so do the fishermen who depend upon their daily catch from the open seas.

The Government ’s Social Welfare Programme which pays RM 400 to every eligible ‘Golden Citizen’ upon reaching the 60 year old age mark will at least help the aging population during their retirement period, the irony is the soaring market prices of food items nowadays is hardly enough or suffice to support a family with one child and it would be more burdening for those who have five or more children or next of kin in the family.

Most rural villages occupied by the hardcore poor in the State do not have electricity neither supply of clean water for ages, villagers would use kerosene lamps to avoid the risks of groping in the dark after sun set or when night falls and would depend on acidic rain water when the river water turns muddy unfit for human consumption during the rainy season, as result of uncontrolled conventional logging activities in the past or those actively going on at present that may have damaged the water catchment area located upstream.

As for road mobility, most rural folks would find that the only stretch of road within their reach from the villages is nothing other than those built by timber companies operating close by that enabling them to come out of their village to the accessible town area. Kpg Inarat, Pinangah or Kpg Piangkau, Paitan is a good example to support this paradox.

However, once the timber companies complete their full cycle of timber harvesting operations within the designated logging areas, the road stretch in question will soon be abandoned and gradually certain portion of the road would get deteriorated as maintenance work is no longer available. Except for vehicles, the villagers can use the road to travel on foot.

Somewhere in the Interior, a cluster of villages located within the range of 25 kilometres from the administrative town do have rural electrification, but the villagers still depend on the gravity pipes, tapping the running water from the nearby hills for their source of drinking water, which dried out during the hot season and turned muddy and unfit to drink in the midst of heavy down pours.

The Trans Pegalan Villages comprising Kampong Ambual, Kampong Megatang, Kampong Marasak and Kampong Sedomon etc. which have road link with Keningau Town 20 kilometres apart is a case in point. These villages are located within the electoral jurisdiction of The Sook State Constituency and The Pensiangan Parliamentary seat respectively.

Before re-delineation or adjustment of the electoral boundaries, the villages in question predominantly inhabited by the KDM communities, were once part of the Keningau Parliamentary constituency for many years, but the longstanding problem of getting clean and treated drinking water for these villagers seemed to have been overlooked by their elected YB.

The problem still remains unsolved until today and have yet to be implemented despite having gone through the changes of State Governments since the dawn of independence.

It would raise many eyebrows whether the current YBs representing the constituencies both from PBRS, the BN component party are well aware of the villagers shortcoming since taking office. It is timely that this issue need speedy attention before the National Poll, whereby every contesting candidate would come knocking at the voters’ doors with strings of sweet promises.

Despite being referred to as the region of the rural poor, the fact is the Interior Residency is not short of qualified politicians including those in possession of Master Degree in International Affairs, the academic qualification earned from a prestigious UK university and considered very relevant to modern politics.

These new generation of educated politicians with the winnable profiles and leadership potential should be given the opportunities to run as candidates within their respective home constituencies be it at State or National level in the 13th General Election.

It is undoubtedly that they can do a lot of wonders as catalysts to our government’s effort in materialising its Socio–Economic Development Programmes especially to reduce the stiff impact caused by the social stigma known as ‘Poverty’ found infesting in most underdeveloped rural regions of ‘The Land Below The Wind’.

Hence, we look forward with optimism the extend of the joint hands cooperation rendered by the relevant authorities, both at State and Federal Level to play an effective role together to materialise the National Building Concept, which will eventually uproot the main causes of Sabah ’s poverty in particular, within the expected time frame by the turn of this decade, despite a frustrated voice breaking out from somewhere “expressing disappointment with the State Government for allegedly blocking funding from its federal counterpart, particularly from the Rural and Regional Development Ministry”.

The misleading and unfounded allegation made by Datuk Abdul Rahim, the UMNO Pantai Manis Assemblyman and former State Minister lately is a case in point. Such allegation is believed to be deliberately orchestrated with the motives of nothing other than to tarnish the outstanding, fantastic and marvellous track records of current UMNO led BN State Administration under CM Musa.

Retrospectively, over the years the people of Sabah have seen the numbers of CMs, Members of Parliament and State Legislative Assemblymen from every ruling party changing hand one after the other including those representing constituencies where the poor natives dominate.

People are now fully matured to judge the backgrounds and credibility of leaders, who come in search of political pleasure either in the broad daylight or after sunset and have now turned out to be very vocal fighting for the Sabahan Rights, when they are no longer in the government or those who did not get appointed to any of the present State Ministerial position. What an amusing political drama that seems to be emerging in the midst of the coming poll speculation!

The politicians who fit the descriptions as liability to the people, should be replaced or rejected at once, irrespective of whether they are aligned with the ruling coalition or the opposition. There is no point of ‘flogging dead horses’ who could care less for their communities within their respective constituencies during their terms of office as the peoples’ representatives be it at State or Federal level.

It is only fair that those who have served the community well during their terms of office be allowed to continue serving longer with the people supports, but not those who have been there for years and did nothing or little other than to show their egos with their YB tags.

The wisdom of Dennis Waitley, the Author of The Psychology of Winning says “There are two primary choices in life -firstly to accept the conditions as they exist or secondly to accept the responsibility for changing them”.