By
: Selvaraja Somiah
In
October 7, 2003, when the Sabah economy was going through turmoil, Musa Aman
took charge of Sabah as the Chief Minister. Turn to March 2008 Barisan National
and Musa Aman in Sabah is stronger than ever. BN had swept the polls in Sabah
retaining power with more than two-thirds majority winning 59 out of 60 seats
contested. In this age of fragmented polity where getting a majority seems
unreal, BN under Musa Aman bagged 65 percent of the votes in almost all the
places. Interesting to note is that these poll victories continued even two
years later in 2010 when the PBS won Batu Sapi Parliamentary constituency in a
by-election.
Then
in May 5th 2013, Musa Aman breaks the 9-year CM jinx and becomes the longest
serving chief minster in the history of Sabah and brings Barisan National to
another impressive two-thirds victory for the state seats and winning 22 out of
the 25 Parliamentary seats. How did Musa Aman and the people of Sabah make all
this possible?
One
particular remark of Musa Aman caught my pride and attention. He claimed that
only politics of development can do something good, not the politics of vote
bank. He said, “I have succeeded to deliver my message that politics of vote
bank or politics of appeasement would not do any good, but the politics of
development would do.” The truth in this statement is the future of Sabah. The truth
in this statement will bring in faith of the Sabah population into the
political democracy. Development, prosperity and improvement of the standards
of living will and can bring in a permanent political stability. And will tag
along prosperity with stability.
Today
we are being short-sighted. The political attitude is of vote bank politics,
‘blanket’ politics, immediate selfish goals and corruption ridden personal
growth. It is vicious cycle that takes us away from socio-economic development.
Musa Aman also could have been short-sighted. He could have assumed his
imminent fall in the elections and could have concentrated his energies in
making as much wealth as possible for a lifetime. Instead he chose the
difficult path of development. He once said, “An opportunity to work is good
luck for me. I put my soul into it. Each such opportunity opens the gates for
the next one.”
Faced
with massive economic losses brought in by 2001, he concentrated on
reorganizing the government’s administrative structure including Yayasan Sabah
and embarked upon a massive cost-cutting exercise when he took over as chief
minister in 2003. As a result of Sabah government efforts under the guidance of
Musa, Sabah registered a GDP growth rate of over 5% during his first tenure. This
was one the highest growth rate among all the Malaysian states.
Sabah
is probably the only state witnessing more than 7% growth for a long time and
also the only state growing higher than the country’s 5-6 per cent growth.
Sabah is growing faster than some of the ASEAN economies. Plan expenditure has
also leapfrogged from RM 2 billion plus in 2003-04 to RM 4 billion plus in
2012-13. It’s all about security, infrastructure development, transparent
policies and prudent State fiscal management, which have contributed to Sabah’s
growth.
During
my stay in Tenom, I remember Padas River a notoriously polluted river had begun
to be transformed and now appeared to be much cleaner, although the water was
still extremely yellowish with siltation brought down from the upper parts of
Keningau and Trusmadi the second highest mountain in Sabah, now it is flowing
bank to bank and the water is better quality. If the Padas River has begun to
meander once again, that’s because the water is flowing freely from the upper
parts of Keningau and Trusmadi, courtesy the ambitious river-cleaning project
of Musa Aman.
Padas
River in full flow is an apt metaphor for the miracle that Musa Aman has pulled
off in making Tenom a model for rural/urban development. Today it boasts of
wide roads, shorter time to reach Brunei, Lawas, Sipitang and even Kota
Kinabalu, better traffic control and minimum traffic congestion and ample green
spaces and the cleanest town in Sabah. It is a delight to hear Musa Aman speak
about development. He once said, “Our roads will be as good as the Autobahns of
Germany”.
Development
of roads in the state epitomizes this wind of change. When a foreign tourist,
who has been visiting tourist spots in the state for long, whom I met recently
in Tenom was asked about the most visible change, he said it was road and the
“Tenom Coffee”. Sabah, for long, remained infamous for its bad roads and
pitiable connectivity. People suffered due to utter lack of connectivity.
Though the state is criss-crossed by several rivers, there were very few
bridges across them, forcing people to make long detours to reach their
destination just across the river.
Musa
said about the changing Sabah: “The state is experiencing all-round development
because of our policy of ensuring that the benefits of development first go to
those at the bottom of the social ladder. Over the years, we rose above the
feelings of race and religion which Sabah is all about, and have worked
tirelessly on the agenda of inclusive development of the state.”
It’s
a proud moment for Sabah that a political leader is showing us the path of long
term development to win a democratic election, to be a popular leader. This is
learning and teaching to all the national and regional political parties, who
have not been far-sighted like Musa Aman.
Lets
salute to the power of development.
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