The continuing failure of the federal government in addressing Sabah’s problems is raising the anger of Sabahans against the federal authorities, an opposition politician says.

 

“Don’t turn a blind eye to Sabah’s problems, because the continuing failure of the federal government is making us Sabahans very angry,” Star Sabah chief and Bingkor assemblyperson Jeffrey Kitingan said.

“Worse still, it will contribute towards Sabahans wanting to opt out of the federation, since there is a breakdown in the federal system of equal partnership,” Jeffrey said in a statement yesterday.

 

He said devastating floods in Sabah, especially in the last two years, have claimed lives, destroyed houses and schools, as well as roads and bridges, besides causing a massive destruction of crops.

The floods have even submerged the towns of Donggongon and Tenom. Many are still suffering from the damaging effects of the floods, he said.

 

Jeffrey praised the Drainage and Irrigation Department for doing a good job in proposing several flood mitigation programmes, including that for the Moyog River to reduce floods in Donggongon and Penampang.

It was reported that only about RM200 million would be needed to mitigate the floods in Penampang and Donggongon, with the first phase costing about RM65 million.

 

However, Jeffrey lamented, it appears that the good work of the Drainage and Irrigation Department was going to waste as there has been no word fund approval from the federal government to carry out the flood mitigation programmes.

However, in the peninsula...

 

In the meantime, Sabahans are getting more disappointed and angry as news keeps coming out on various flood mitigation programmes being carried out and flood aid distributed in the peninsula.

The latest is the RM300 million flood mitigation programme for the Kerian District of Perak, which is scheduled for completion in 2016-17.

Earlier this year, Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak announced that RM480 million would be spent for flood mitigation in Kemaman and another RM700 million in Pahang.

Yet, Sabah ,which is equivalent to nine peninsular states in size, appears to be getting a big ‘0’ for flood mitigation, said Jeffrey, pointing out that to add salt to the injury,  the Agriculture and Agro-Industry Ministry two days  distributed RM1.57 million in aid to farmers in Kedah and Perlis whose padi fields were damaged by floods last month.

 

He said that Sabahans were not jealous that states in Malaya were receiving funds from the federal government for such programmes or wanting them to be stopped or reduced.

He put the blame on Sabah’s problems equally on six federal ministers and four deputy ministers from Sabah, who, he said, were either sleeping on their jobs and not bringing up issues for attention and decision in the cabinet, or that they have no say in Najib’s cabinet.

The ultimate result is that the federal government is sidelining Sabah in development allocations and pretending not to know the real flood situation in the Borneo state, Jeffrey added.