Kota Kinabalu: “It is sad the federal Minister from Kota Belud is still caught in a time warp and living in the past trying to hoodwink Sabahans with distortions and half-truths on revenues collected from and federal allocations for Sabah” said Datuk Dr. Jeffrey Kitingan, STAR Sabah Chief in response to the Minister’s assertion that the federal government spent RM22.1 billion for 2012-2013 on federal allocations in Sabah while collecting only RM8.3 billion revenue.
The federal Minister is wrong to treat Sabahans as ignorant fools that do not understand the trickery of the federal government and the Minister himself in stating the revenues from and federal allocations for Sabah.
The Minister should prove himself as a modern responsible Minister and a not feudalistic warlord cum stooge of a far-flung colonial master across the South China Sea.
In presenting the half-truths and undisclosed figures, the Minister has made a fool of himself to Sabahans present at the recent Forum at a leading hotel in Kota Kinabalu. At the same time, he has made the federal government to look bad and evil.
In understating the revenue at RM8.3 billion, the Minister has failed to disclose that it did not include revenues from companies not based in Sabah eg. plantation companies and oil companies that earn tens of billion each year from Sabah. At the same time, he forgot to include that Sabah contributed RM36.48 billion in oil revenue for 2012-2013 with another RM26.6 billion collectible for 2014.
The Minister also lied to the people when he forgot to state that from the revenues collected from Sabah, the federal government was required to give back 40% under the 10th Schedule of the Federal Constitution. Even assuming only RM8.3 billion collected, Sabah was entitled to receive RM3.32 billion.
On the other hand, when the Minister attempted to show that it was generous in spending RM22.1 billion for Sabah, it clearly backfired. The federal government did not spend it for Sabah, certainly not for development as the Minister was attempting to infer. It went to finance the salaries, wages and operational costs of the parallel Sabah government comprising of federal ministries, departments and agencies, as a neo-colonial mechanism to control Sabah.
Many of them are headed and staffed by Malayans and they are redundant and duplicate the functions of Sabah agencies and jeopardize the importance of Sabah agencies and takeover the autonomy and functions of the Sabah government. It not only deprive Sabahans of jobs opportunies but also deny Sabahans of advancement and human resource development.
Can one imagine if the federal agencies were staffed by Sabahans from the 1980s alone, we would have a whole generation of Sabahans who could have better cared for the welfare of their familes and could have been mentors to the present youths who are now forced to work in the Peninsula and Singapore?
The Sabah economy would also have benefited with the billions earned by Sabahans in the public service rather than now where the billions are siphoned back to the Peninsula to feed their families.
Is it a wonder that Sabah and Sabahans are the poorest in Malaysia?
The Minister should have disclosed how much of the RM22.1 billion was spent for Sabah and for development and not deliberately leave it hanging in the air.
The Minister’s reliance on figures supplied by the federal government shows a similar typical dependence of Sabah Umno BN leaders without knowing the whole truth. He should have done his own research and get to know the true picture.
For the benefit of the Minister, his Prime Minister boss announced in Budget 2014 that Sabah and Sarawak would receive a development budget of only RM2.3 billion out of the national RM40 billion bill.
If as what the Minister absurdly suggested that Sabah and Sarawak were 2 of the 13 States, they would have received a fair share of RM6.15 billion development budget not RM2.3 billion.
As the Minister was appointed in May 2013, and as a Minister and MP from Sabah, did he fight for the fair allocation of RM6.15 billion for Sabah and Sarawak? Did he even voice that 40% of the revenue collected from Sabah should be returned to Sabah where development is badly needed? He better come more prepared for the next Forum instead of trying to hoodwink Sabahans with half-baked figures.
Datuk Dr. Jeffrey Kitingan
Chairman Borneo Heritage Foundation (BHF)
06 October 2014
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