Sabah's Uniqueness
Othman Ahmad
No wonder when its state budget is more than 2000 million, the largest in
Malaysia, and without any debt at all.
Surprising when in terms of GDP, it is only ranked in the 5th, not last.
However the poverty rate is still the highest at around 30% with little sign
of decreasing. So you can imagine how rich the town people are. Please also
note that the immigration level is very high. As high as 30%, most of them
Philippinoes and Indonesians, working in plantations and construction works.
Elections are very expensive. About 2 million per constituency, on average,
10,000 voters. So about RM 200 per voter.
RM 200 million will be spent but most of the money is not spent on
bribery. A large portion is spent of transportation. Remember that Sabah is
2/3 the size of Malaya. So you should expect the election expenditure to be\
about 2/3 of Malaya and more because of the poor infrastructures.
These figures are not facts, rather rumours and 3rd hand information,
so beware.
Is this lavishness limited to elections? NO. It is the way Sabahans do things,
at least those with money. I'm not one of those but you can see them around,
driving Ninja Turtles(Toyota Land Cruisers), the symbol of prestige here.
Maybe it also filters down to the poor people as well.
For example:
In Sabah, Warungs are not popular. We have them but only immigrants eat there.
Locals just buy food there.
Most people dring at coffee shops.
I believe the equivalent to the Warungs are the Market stalls, similar to
Singapore food centres. In fact our Market stalls were started much earlier
than those in Singapore.
Very few motor cycles. Unlike in West Malaysia.
Coffee shops offer more choices:
tea, coffee, horlicks, milo, nestum plus the subfix
O(without any milk)
nai(condensed sweetened milk)
see(unsweetened evaporated milk)
pink(iced)
kow(dense,"pekat")
In fact you can ask for anything in combinations. Unfortunately, no fresh milk.
You can get them only at hotels, or the Western Fast Food outlets.
SABAH is HEAVEN. Beautiful islands, mountains and jungles are next to 5 star
hotels. There are no natural and very few man-made disasters,
BUT for how long will it last?
Disclaimer: I only speak for myself
Black...@mts.rpi.edu
Have you joined the Tourist Development Board?
Salam,
Black Swan
x94...@gw.wmich.edu
> Sabah is the only state that had consistently rejected BN and still survive.
>
> No wonder when its state budget is more than 2000 million, the largest in
> Malaysia, and without any debt at all.
>
> Surprising when in terms of GDP, it is only ranked in the 5th, not last.
>
> However the poverty rate is still the highest at around 30% with little sign
> of decreasing. So you can imagine how rich the town people are. Please also
> note that the immigration level is very high. As high as 30%, most of them
> Philippinoes and Indonesians, working in plantations and construction works.
I agree with you. I'm a Sabahan myself. Sabah is one of the richest states
with its abundance of oil resources and timber. But most of all I think its
greatest assets is its beautiful natural environment. In my opinion, if BN
were to control Sabah, these natural beauty will be lost because they are
only after timber and oil. It's true that poverty is still high in Sabah.
Do you see many Sabahans begging by the roadside? No, you'll see mostly
foreign immigrants. This is because even poor people in Sabah is
self-sufficient. Give them land and they'll live. They are only poor
because they do not enjoy the material things that most people enjoy. This
what makes Sabahans beautiful. If BN is blaming someone for Sabah's poverty,
they are partly to be blamed too, no offence here, please correct me.
I'm proud of Sabah's stand.
Kelvin Goh
>In article <Zs0XHc...@oasys.pc.my>, oth...@oasys.pc.my (Othman Ahmad) writes:
>> However the poverty rate is still the highest at around 30% with little sign
>> of decreasing. So you can imagine how rich the town people are. Please also
>> note that the immigration level is very high. As high as 30%, most of them
>> Philippinoes and Indonesians, working in plantations and construction works.
>I agree with you. I'm a Sabahan myself. Sabah is one of the richest states
>with its abundance of oil resources and timber. But most of all I think its
>greatest assets is its beautiful natural environment. In my opinion, if BN
>were to control Sabah, these natural beauty will be lost because they are
>only after timber and oil. It's true that poverty is still high in Sabah.
>Do you see many Sabahans begging by the roadside? No, you'll see mostly
>foreign immigrants. This is because even poor people in Sabah is
>self-sufficient. Give them land and they'll live. They are only poor
>because they do not enjoy the material things that most people enjoy. This
>what makes Sabahans beautiful. If BN is blaming someone for Sabah's poverty,
>they are partly to be blamed too, no offence here, please correct me.
> I'm proud of Sabah's stand.
It is the fault of the feds that we see the high poverty in
Sabah. Reason #1 - the uncontrolled illegal immigration into the]
state by the Filipinos and Indonesians. Immigration is under the full
control of the federal rulers. PBS has demanded this right be given
to the state government.
Reason #2 - The decrease in transfer payments by the feds to
the state since the Sabah became a 'non-BN' state. While Petronas
takes away the 95% of the petroleum revenue, hardly any of it makes
its way back to the state. This incident is not only true in Sabah
but also in constituencies under opposition control.
Isn't it rather contradictory that a state, so abundant in
natural resources, seems so starved of development, even though its
natural resources are being extracted ????
I, too, am proud of Sabah's stand.
. . . . . . . .... . . . . . . .
Kelvin Goh Internet: yg...@sfu.ca
Faculty of Business Administration Ora Et Labora
Simon Fraser University, BC, Canada
Kayliang Ong
x94...@gw.wmich.edu writes:
As a Sabahan, I feel that the federal government has mis-handled Sabah
ever since the day Sabah has joined Malaysia. As you have pointed out,
tremedous resources have been extracted from Sabah and little has been
re-channelled back for development. The situation worsens when non-BN
parties is in power. It is so short-sighted of the federal government to
impose such policy for the sake of political differences. They seem to
lose sight of the bigger picture of national unity, which includes
the very first step of gaining Sabahans' trust of the West Malaysian
government. The current policy of retarding or torturing Sabahans
economically is counter-productive to achieving its national objective
of developed Malaysia by the year 2020. Furthermore, there remains
the very explosive issue of ownership of Sabah between Malaysia,
Philipine and Indonesian (also the problem of ownership of Sibatan island
across from Tawau). Isolating Sabah economically will complicate
the problem and furthermore, without close cooperation between the
state and federal government, the illegal immigration problem will
increase Sabah's population in a dis-proportional way that will tilt
the negotiation in favors of Philipine and Indonesian.
In short, as a Sabahan, I believe Sabahans should view themselves
as Malaysians first but unfortunately, the unfair treatment or bad
policy on the part of the federal government seems to have
discouraged that. As PBS has won the election again, I hope the BN
government should learn the lesson and reverse its previous policy
of isolating Sabah. If BN is indeed sincere in its compaign promises,
it should fulfull them regardless of whether it won or not.
Four years is not that long time to wait ... and may the party that
contribute to Sabah's future prosperity wins the next election.
Wish the Best for Sabah ...
KayLiang
=========================================================================
KayLiang Ong,
Member of Technical Staff (MTS),
Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corporation (MCC),
3500, West Balcones Center Drive, Austin, Texas 78759, USA.
Tel: (512) 338-3354 Fax: (512) 338-3600 Email: kayl...@mcc.com
----------------------------------------------------------------------
From the Heart of Texas * Austin * The Live Music Capital of the World
----------------------------------------------------------------------
=========================================================================