A Gabungan Sabah govt will implement ‘super’ development — Lajim

BEAUFORT: The Gabungan Sabah (GS) government will implement ‘super’ development to prosper Sabah in five years and provide Sabahans with sealed roads, clean water supply, other amenities and infrastructure, said Datuk Seri Lajim Ukin, president of Parti Harapan Rakyat Sabah.

It will be super development compared to what the Barisan Nasional (BN) Sabah government had failed to do for the last 15 years since 2003 when the rotation of the Chief Minister was stopped and held only by Umno, said Lajim.

“BN Sabah and Federal governments have recently said that Sabah has been developed which the Barisan Nasional can only provide and poverty has been reduced to 2.9 per cent.

“However, the reality is the opposite. Sabah is the poorest State in Malaysia with about 40 per cent of all poor Malaysians are Sabahans,” he claimed.

“There were 477,482 BR1M recipients in 2017 which means that they are in the lower income category. It is ironical given that Sabah is the fifth biggest contributor to the Malaysian economy but the people remained poor.

“It is the responsibility of the government to provide clean treated water, not giving out blue tanks. Giving of blue tanks only serve to confirm that the Sabah government has failed in its responsibility.

“In most villages, Sabahans have to travel on gravel and mud-tracks to get to their homes. During the rainy season, many vehicles would be stuck in the mud-tracks,” Lajim claimed.

“Despite receiving record five per cent oil revenue and oil palm levy in the past 10 years, there is very little improvement in terms of development of basic amenities and infrastructure.

“What is the use of boasting of RM3.7 billion reserves when the people have to travel daily on gravel roads and mud-tracks and be stuck in them? Also the reserves were due to the record revenues and not purely good management by the Sabah government,” he said.

“It only costs about RM2.5 billion to seal all the rural roads in Sabah. It may cost a bit more in present time. I know because I had done the proposal to seal the rural roads when I was a minister and it was approved by the PM but unfortunately the funds never came from the Federal government for implementation,” he claimed.

“The GS government has plans for the development of Sabah and in five years, the development will be more than what the BN government has done in 15 years,” Lajim asserted.