Sabah's perennial power woes have come back to haunt SESB (Sabah Electricity Sdn Bhd) managing director Baharin Din's future in the wake of a series of recent incidents plaguing the unpopular Federal-owned power utility.

Kalabakan MP and former Sabah Deputy Chief Minister Ghapur Salleh is taking the lead to force Baharin to step down immediately.

Alternatively, he risked being booted out from the Tenaga Nasional subsidiary, warned Ghapur. "We can do this since the state government still has a 20 per cent stake in SESB."

NONE Ghapur ( left) sees the SESB chief as inept and the source of all the management and power issues facing the monopoly.

Baharin, the Sabah Umno stalwart has concluded, was for starters arrogant and has a "couldn't care less" attitude towards the suffering of Sabahans.

"The irresponsible attitude (Baharin) has caused much suffering and inconvenience to the people of Sabah," fumed Ghapur.. "Does he think that Sabahans are second class citizens who only deserve second hand services?"

He reminded SESB that Sabahans, individuals as well as the business community, paid for their services with "the same ringgit and sen as in Peninsular Malaysia".

PM's pledge unfulfilled

He called on both the federal and state governments to be firm with Baharin and SESB which, according to him, was plagued with "a Third World mentality".

najib announce gdp 240210 01 He recalled that Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak had given a solemn assurance last Ramadan in Tawau that "the power woes of Sabah will be addressed immediately".

"SESB should bear in mind that the power supply problem did not occur just yesterday but has been here for many years," said Ghapur. "What we want in Sabah is a SESB leadership that can eliminate the problem, not minimise it or employ ad hoc measures."

He flew off the handle this time when he discovered that SESB had gone back on their word to buy new equipment for the east coast region.

SESB, he has since learnt, had sourced old, second-hand and castaway engines including some from Langkawi.

When confronted with the facts, Ghapur disclosed, Baharin apparently took the view that the condition of the equipment did not matter it as long as they helped cut down on power disruptions.

Penny wise, pound foolish

The SESB's chief's excuse reportedly was that "buying new equipment would take several years and the power utility had to act immediately to address the outages".

SESB's target with the equipment is to hold power disruptions in the east coast to between 15 and 20 per cent, Ghapur learnt, is "still an unacceptable figure with local consumers".

The Kalabakan MP learnt that SESB recently bought 32 generator sets, each 40 megawatts, and deployed 17 in Tawau and the remainder in Sandakan.

It is not known to what extent the generator sets have helped alleviate the situation in the east coast.

The local media referred to the sets as old but SESB begs to differ. Baharin, according to Ghapur, told him the equipment was a mix of second-hand (not reconditioned) and used.

"Two generator sets installed in Kalabakan in December are always breaking down and there are frequent power blackouts in the district," complained Ghapur.

"We had been assured by both SESB and Tenaga Nasional that there would be no more power disruptions from Dec 24 last year."

The Kalabakan MP added that based on the assurances from both power utility companies, he advised the people that they could at last rest easy on the power situation.

Now, he has come across "as a liar to the people" who accuse him of not being serious enough in helping tackle the power woes in the district.

"I have always brought up the power issue in Parliament," said Ghapur who plans to raise the issue yet again in the session beginning on Monday. "But nobody is listening. Nobody wants to know about the power woes plaguing Sabah."

Ghapur will have a stronger case in Parliament this time following additional input this week from the State Industrial Development Ministry and the Federation of Sabah Manufacturers (FSM) on the issue.

FSM President Wong Khen Thau has cited recent statistics which showed that foreign direct investments (FDIs) have cooled off significantly.

Wong said that in many cases the FDIs are only there during the good times but when things are not so good, they leave.

Likewise, Industrial Development Minister Raymond Tan has warned that "it is imperative for the state government to overcome the electricity supply problem in Sabah if it wants to attract more investors to the state".

"Sabah has gas and oil. We need to keep the gas in Sabah for what we need for our investors," said Tan. "The perennial power problem faced by Sabahans goes back to the fact that the government did not address the issue of planning its supply much earlier."

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