PM's proclamation a "double insult" to people

KOTA KINABALU, Feb 23, 2012: Tawau MP Datuk Chua Soon Bui has described the Prime Minister's recent proclamation that Sabah is now no longer the poorest State in Malaysia as a desperate spin to cover up the sad and shameful reality affecting the people of Sabah.

She added that it was also a "double insult" to the people of Sabah, who had gone from riches to rags, despite being endowed with God-given rich natural resources.

In a statement here Tuesday, she said measurement of poverty should not be based on average per capita income as the only pointer as stated by the Prime Minister.

"This is especially so where the gap between the rich and the poor has greatly widened in the recent years in Sabah," she said.

Nothing that such measurement is very deceiving to the people, she demanded the Prime Minister's Department give the true picture on the new Poverty Line Income in Sabah, compared with other states.

She contended that with the escalating cost of living and food prices, the Poverty Line Income (PLI) in Sabah of RM1,048 (PLI for Sarawak is RM912, for Peninsular Malaysia is RM763) should be reviewed, adding that the average people in Sabah have been struggling to make ends meet, almost every day.

Chua, who is also a vice president of Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP), said since the Government has done a survey through the BR1M registration, it should not be a problem for the Government together sufficient statistic to reveal the true picture.

With the reported 400,000 cases of BR1M approve in Sabah it is estimated from the total households of 621,500 (2009 report), 54 per cent of Sabah households earn less than RM3,000 and about 100,000 households earned less than RM1,000 (2010 report) i.e. below the Poverty Line Income, she noted.

"It is therefore a miracle that Sabah being the poorest state as reported in the Would Bank (2009) suddenly finds many poor families had disappeared. It is very unfair to paint a rosy picture to hide the reality of the suffering of the poor families," she said.

“Do we need another World Bank report to confirm this?" she asked.

She urged the Federal Government to grab the bull by its horns and to reinforce its poverty-eradication programme, instead of painting a rosy picture to mislead the entire nation, the people of Sabah in particular, to think thet the situation has improved for better when it has in fact worsened.

While concurring with the Prime Minister's statement that Sabah has huge potential to surge forward with all the rich natural resources, Chua nonetheless regretted that all the riches had not fully benefited the people of Sabah, as highlighted by the Sabah Oil an Gas Contractors Association (Sogca) recently, lamenting that major contracts in the state oil and gas industry were not given to Sabah companies.

She especially regretted that a large portion of Sabah's wealth was usurped by the Federal government, largely through some unfair policies such as the meagre five per cent oil royalty and the lopsided Cabotage Policy which is the main contributing factor to the high cost of living in Sabah.