Sunday 26 February 2012

INSULTING THE PEOPLE BY DENYING POVERTY



By : DANIEL JOHN JAMBUN

OF ALL the many current issues being debated in the media, Najib’s ‘assurance’ during his recent visit to Sabah that the state is no longer the poorest in Malaysia is the one that currently hitting the most sensitive nerves among Sabahans.

While the statement was supported by local BN leaders, the opposition leaders have expressed shock at the Najib’s statement. People on the ground are scornful and believe it is all a desperate political spin to give a positive impact for Najib’s visit to Sabah prior to the general election.

According to Najib, “per capita income in the East Malaysian state has crept past Kelantan and was almost on par with the national average” with the number of households categorised as hardcore poor has been reduced to 7,000 now, down from 30,000 previously, without any mention of exact time period. "Sabah is now a state with so much potential," he observed.

The main problem with Najib’s statement is that it lacked any evidence. And it’s an insult to say that “Sabah has crept past Kelantan” as if Sabah deserves only to be compared with the second poorest state in Malaysia.

Why not compare us with Selangor and Penang? If we had crept past the second poorest state, the progress wasn’t much and it meant we had to struggled on our knees just to do that. This therefore means we are no much better off.

And this statistics about reduction of hardcore poor households coming down to 7,000 from a previous 30,000 is very doubtful because it cannot be corroborated from any source. Najib didn’t even say from what year to what year the reduction took place.

And if this was true a personnel from the Statistics Department should have came up with a supporting statement to provide reliable and verifiable data. I would believe Najib only if there is an independent confirmation from the World Bank.

I would like to remind BN leaders that when World Bank submitted its report to the State Government in November 2010, it’s representative Emmanuel Jimenez said that “Sabah was not only the poorest state in Malaysia but it’s likely to stay that way for a considerable length of time given current efforts in poverty eradication.”

The report specifically said that “the bottomline was that Malaysia’s economic planning in Sabah so far HAS NOT BEEN FOR INCLUSIVE GROWTH. Although efforts by the Government have somewhat brought down the poverty rate, it’s still not enough. Sabahans continue to struggle to make ends meet. This is more evident in the outskirts of the towns.”

The phrase “has not been for inclusive growth” means any growth tyried by the government didn’t include most of the state’s economic sectors, and excluded most of the people. So, there! My question is how did those poor people suddenly disappear?

Certainly it was not because of any fantastic government efforts! All those poverty eradication programs didn’t and aren’t working the 1Azam Wanita 1Malaysia (a rural economic financing program for women) has not made any impact in Sabah, the e-Kasih has been widely accused of being implemented with pilih kasih (favouristism) and the PPRT is being abused to reward Umno supporters who are already doing well financially.

They are all not achieving their targets as planned although the government had bragged they would be bringing poverty down. The government actually had not even taken into account the force of high inflation which is killing off whatever small effects are coming from these mismanaged programs. So what the people is really getting is the receding value of their income in the face of skyrocketing cost of living which is causing dramatic increase in urban poverty.

Because of this inflation, even government servants have to depend on Ah Longs to make ends meet, and as a consequence they suffer even more from having to make the exorbitant repayments. Employment and business opportunities are scarce. What you see in the local newspaper are court summonses and bankruptcy notices. As of June 2010, 218,561 Malaysians have gone bankrupt, and worse, Malaysia itself is feared to be going bankrupt by 2019!

As for Sabah, we have to understand that poverty is not happening mainly because of international economic forces, but by design as a way for Umno/BN to ensure we Sabahans continue to be beholden to them.

Najib’s statement that Sabah has such great potential is another insult because by saying so he is being hypocritical because he knows very well how the Federal Government is denying Sabah a lot of potential growth by taking away 95 percent of our oil, taking a massive collection of taxes from Sabah, giving us small development allocations, perpetuating the cabotage policy which is accelerating inflation in Sabah and Sarawak, and taking lands in Sabah for Felcra and Felda which do not contribute much to the state economy.

All these policies are strangling Sabah’s economy, had contributed to us becoming the poorest state, so where are we going with this great potential that we are supposed to have now? All I can see is that Sabah is a great potential for the Federal Government to exploit further, and to be treated as a fixed deposit.

And isn’t it ironic and laughable that while all this talk us about not being the poorest anymore, there is that report about illiteracy still pervading Ulu Paitan? The report talks about people being unable to attend school due to impossible distances. If that is not abject poverty, I don’t know what is.

And on then same page that Datuk Azizah Mohd. Dun was agreeing with Najib about Sabah no longer the poorest state, there is the embarrassing report about people in Keningau and Tambunan (Tan Sri Pairin’s area) asking for allocations to improve their lives (to build roads, huts, gravity pipes, clinics, etc.) because “the lives of many people are no different from that of the 1960s”! This clearly means the people there have never enjoyed the fruits of independence! What a shame!

We can continue to cite thousands of examples of poverty still pervading the people just to prove that the Federal Government has failed miserably to help Sabahans. We can even provide graphic pictures of people living in abject poverty in the interiors. We have known and had spoken about this since a long time, so when the Chief Executive of the land comes here and declare most of our poverty has disappeared, it is just unacceptable and insulting.

32 comments:

  1. semoga masalah kemiskinan di Sabah ini akan segera dapat diatasi.

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    1. Masalah kemiskinan bukan masalah kerajaan tetapi masalah individu juga.

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    2. Agree to anonymous, the people should work hard too to resolve poverty.

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  2. kekayaan sumber2 alam semulajadi yang dimiliki oleh Sabah memungkinkan Sabah boleh jadi negeri yang lebih maju.

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    1. jika sumber2 Sabah digunakan dgn baik, pasti Sabah akan jadi negeri terkaya.

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    2. Sabah bukannya miskin tetapi miskin dengan cara pemimpin.

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  3. No doubt we still have room for improvement, it would be great if we could see even better growth in our economy.

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  4. Hopefully with the highest budget-RM4.048 billio that Sabah has received among the years will bring Sabah out from poverty.

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    1. The fund must be used to improve the state's rural areas, improve the state's transportation and utilities infrastructures, and boost the economy of Sabah in order to bring sabah out from poverty.

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    2. The bujet should allocate wisely to more economy development plan.

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    3. Projek pembangunan harus lebih terancang untuk mengelakkan kegagalan dan penyelewengan.

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  5. Look around Sabah and you see riches everywhere, even in the remotest village.

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    1. Kampung Nala, in Tunku, about 60km (37.5 miles) from Lahad Datu, deep in the eastern side of Sabah, was a mangrove swamp.

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    2. Today, it is a vibrant rich village with clean piped water, electricity and modern amenities. The houses there fetch about 60,000 ringgit ($19,700) each.

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  6. Sabah’s gross domestic product (GDP) in 2010 was 31.6 billion ringgit, making it the sixth richest in Malaysia just behind Penang and ahead of Perak on peninsular Malaysia.

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    1. teruskan usaha supaya kawasan pedalaman juga dapat menikmati perubahan dari segi kehidupan.

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  7. Federal Land Development Authority (Felda) has spent 22m ringgit on its development.

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  8. Felda also gives 50m ringgit a year to the Sabah government for such socio-economic programmes to bring wealth to villagers.

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  9. The agriculture, manufacturing and tourism sector in sabah has the potential to accelerate the state economy growth which could in turn help in reducing the poverty rate in sabah.

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    1. yup.. and the state government already have their own plan to boost our agriculture, manufacturing and tourism sector..

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  10. semoga Sabah akan terus membangun dan menjadi negeri yang kaya.

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  11. Ada juga kaya dan ada juga miskin, cuba turun padang dan lawat kawasan perkampungan, banyak lagi yang tidak berpendidikan.

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    1. mungkin ada perkara yang tidak sampai kepengetahuan Najib.. oleh itu Najib sendiri perlu turun padang melihat semua kawasan di negeri ini tanpa bergantung kepada maklumat2 dari pemimpin2 akar umbi beliau semata2..

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  12. Semoga bujet 2012 dilaksanakan dengan baik dan berkebolehan membawa perubahan dari segi ekonomi.

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    1. dan semoga hasrat kerajaan negeri untuk menjadikan Sabah sebagai negeri maju menjelang 2015 akan dapat dicapai..

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  13. Rakyat juga harus berusaha agar tidak amat bergantung kepada kerajaan.

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    1. pembangkang juga tidak perlu menghasut minda rakyat bahawa hanya melalui pertukaran parti politik, maka rakyat akan mengecapi kekayaan..

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  14. the only reason why Sabah become the poorest state among states in Malaysia is there are many poor people in this state.. this poor people will always remain poor if there is no action taken by themselves..

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  15. pemimpin harus menggunakan bujet dengan wajar untuk membaiki ekonomi Sabah. Dengan ini, masalah kemiskinan dapat dikurangkan sedikit demi sedikit.

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  16. The Government is making continuous efforts to ensure that people's lives are comfortable and assist those still in grasp of poverty to better themselves

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  17. Kemiskinan mungkin sangat ketara di Sabah. Namun tidak bermakna kerajaan duduk diam saja. Kerajaan telah berusaha untuk menyelesaikan masalah kemiskinan ini. Namun apa yang dinyatakan oleh PM kita mungkin pandangan beliau sendiri dan mungkin untuk masa hadapan di Sabah. Maka mari kita berusaha untuk memastikan Sabah akan keluar dari kemiskinan di Malaysia.

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  18. With proper financial and resource management, Sabah would achieve better. May the govt planning and implementation will be done efficiently.

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