DAP national adviser Lim Kit Siang has called on the Barisan Nasional government to have a national debate and soul searching as to how Sarawak and Sabah, two of the richest states in Malaysia, have been reduced in five decades to be among the poorest and the most inequitable states in the federation.

“Official statistics from the 2009 National Household Income Survey Report and from the EPU show that the incidence of poverty overall in Sabah is the highest in the country at 19.7 percent, while that of Sarawak is at 5.3 percent (equal to Kedah). Perlis is second at 6.0 percent.

september 16 sarawak and sabah independence “On incidence of rural poverty, Sabah is the highest in the country at 32 percent, while Sarawak is occupying the second highest at 8.4 percent,” he said.

Lim, who was addressing a Malaysia Day gathering at Chonglin Park, Kuching yesterday, said that the people of Sarawak and Sabah were promised progress and development at least to the level achieved by the peninsular states.

“Have these promises to Sabah and Sarawak been fulfilled in the past five decades? The answers must be a loud ‘no’.

“Where have all the wealth of Sabah and Sarawak gone to in the past five decades?

“After nearly five decades, many in the interiors of Sarawak and Sabah even lack the most basic infrastructures to be found in the rest of Malaysia like regular electricity supply, uninterrupted piped water and good roads and bridges as well as the most basic of health and educational facilities.

“After nearly five decades in Malaysia, there are at least four ‘massives’ in Sarawak and Sabah - massive corruption, massive cronyism, massive landlessness and massive poverty.

“My various visits into the Sarawak and Sabah interiors have reinforced my conviction that a royal commission of inquiry on five decades of Malaysian federation is vital and paramount as there are deep-seated frustrations and dissatisfactions that the two promises of constitutional safeguards and development progress for Sarawak and Sabah had not been realised.

“I think there is no more meaningful manner for Sarawak and Sabah to mark their 50 years of Malaysian nationhood than to conduct a comprehensive review of the successes and failures in all aspects of development in these two states as well as to review the constitutional safeguards as contained in the 18 points for Sarawak and 20 points for Sabah,” Lim said.

The DAP leader said that after 49 years in Malaysia, Sarawak is afflicted with the curse of CLIB - corruption, land (NCR) injustices, Infrastructure (backwardness) and Borneonisation (breach) while Sabah is afflicted by the curse of CLIBI (illegal immigrants).

‘Corruption gone from bad to worse’

“Although fighting corruption is one of the priority six National Key Result Areas (NKRAs) of Najib Abdul Razak’s Government Transformation Programme (GTP),  Malaysia’s corruption has gone from bad to worse in the past three years as tracked by Transparency International’s annual corruption perception index.

“In Malaysia, Sarawak and Sabah are two of the top states where corruption is most rampant and intractable,” he said.

Lim said that land injustices are the second major issue in Sarawak and Sabah that have caused miseries to the Dayaks and the Kadazan Dusun Muruts.

pantu iban and oil palm He said as the Kuching High Court judge, Justice Linton Albert said in his judgment in the landmark ‘Pantu’ NCR case: ‘These are cries for justice because one cannot simply throw one’s hands in the air and say that is how life is’.

 

On infrastructure (backwardness), he said that both Sarawak and Sabah are states with rich natural resources, whether oil, gas or timber, but the wealth of the state have been hijacked by BN leaders and their cronies instead of being ploughed back to ensure that the people in the two states enjoy the most basic of infrastructure resources.

“There are areas in the two states where there are water pipes without water and electric poles without power supply or hospitals without doctors,” he said.

On the question of Borneonisation, Lim said that it was the Barisan Nasional’s failure to honour the ‘Borneonisation’ undertaking contained in the 18/20 points Agreements.

“This (failure) was recently highlighted by the proposal by Zaki Azmi, chairperson of the Special Review Commission on civil service transformation, to lower the requirements for Dayaks and ethnic minority groups to enter the civil service so as to address the imbalance of racial composition within the civil service.

“The proposal had been lambasted by Dayak leaders on both sides of the political divide as an insult and mockery of the Dayak community as they contended that there are enough qualified people from Dayaks and the minority groups but the problem is the absence of meritocracy not only for recruitment but also promotion in the civil service,” he said.

He said Zaki should be thanked for highlighting the failure of the Barisan Nasional government to implement Borneonisation in Sarawak as promised in the 18-point agreement, resulting in the sense of grievance, marginalisation and discrimination by the Dayak and other ethnic groups.

No sign that RCII has started work

On the illegal immigrants, Lim said that Najib has taken six months to announce the members of and the terms of reference of the royal commission of inquiry into illegal immigrants (RCII) in Sabah.

“More than a month has passed since Najib’s announcement, but there are no signs that the RCII has started work or its members have been presented with their instruments of appointment, which is pertinent as the six months given to the RCII to complete its report is to take effect from the official appointments.

“This raises the serious question whether RCII would be another meaningless public relations exercise like the RCI on Police reform, the RCI on the VK Lingam video clip and the RCI onTeoh Beng Hock’s death,” he said.

The theme of the 49th Malaysia Day is ‘Janji Ditepati’ but it is clear that as far as Sarawak is concerned, the promises for the establishment of Malaysia had not been fulfilled not only in these four major issues for Sarawak and five for Sabah, but in many other areas as well, Lim said.

Later Lim joined other Pakatan leaders in signing the Kuching Declaration - a commitment that the Pakatan will fulfil when it forms the next federal government.