By : QUEVILLE TO
KOTA KINABALU: MP for Tawau
Chua Soon Bui has accused the federal government of cooking up figures to show
poverty in the state was on a downward trend.
She said that it was obvious
that the government’s poverty eradication programmes were not having the
desired effect given that figures showed there had been an increase in the
number of hardcore poor between 2004 and 2009.
Chua, who is also a vice-president
of Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP), said the department’s figures showed that
Sabah’s poverty rate failed to decrease but increased for five years with 19.2%
in 2004, 19.5% in 2007 and 19.7% in 2009.
“The high poverty rate
indicates that the government allocations have not reached the focus and
targeted groups,” she said.
Chua faulted the
government’s delivery system as one of the main causes for the failure to
tackle the problem in the state which is considered to have the highest number
of poverty-stricken people in the country.
She said the delivery
systems needed to be rectified immediately to prevent the programme from
haemorrhaging more funds.
In addition, she said, the
escalating cost of living in Sabah was having a major effect on any
poverty-alleviation programme.
She accused the government
of failing to single out and tackle the underlying issues that contribute to
the problem in the state.
“It shows that the BN
government has failed badly to deliver to the people in Sabah,” she said.
Chua was responding to the
Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak’s written reply in the Dewan Rakyat recently, in
which he said the poverty rate in Sabah had dropped by 3.7% from 23.4% in 1999
to 19.7% in 2009 based on the findings of the Family Incomes and Basic
Infrastructure Study 2009 conducted by Malaysia Statistics Department.
Sabah is poorest state
Najib also acknowledged that
low education standard was among the key factors that was behind Sabah its
current position as the poorest state in the country.
He was replying to a
question by Chua who asked what were the factors that lead to Sabah being the
poorest state in the country with highest poverty rate of 19.7% as compared to
the national average of 3.8%.
She also wanted to know why
the government programmes to reduce poverty in the state had failed to have
much impact.
The Prime Minister explained
that low education standard had contributed to lack of skilled workers which
inevitably caused the investors to shun the state. This in return resulted in lack
of investments to create employments for the people.
Other factors taken into
account were the state’s vast size, scattered population and poor
infrastructure all of which contributed to difficulty in implementing community
development projects and programmes.
Najib also noted that the
factors that caused poverty in the agriculture sector were largely due to
unstable commodity prices, and high cost of operation.
The Tawau MP said the
government should immediately form a special unit to evaluate and ensure the
effectiveness of its poverty eradication programs in Sabah given that the
billions of ringgit allocated to Sabah to eradicate poverty was not paying off.
She said it was unacceptable
that Sabah had such high poverty rate in 2009 compared to the national average
despite the state being rich in petroleum, gas and palm oil, while those living
in states without oil and gas resources were better off.
Chua also said that although
the government had allocated billions of ringgit for schemes such as Low Income
Household, Basic Rural Infrastructure and Cost of Living, whether the needy
families have benefited from them was unknown.
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