Sabah still not accorded autonomy, rights under MA63 — Yong

KOTA KINABALU: Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) president Datuk Yong Teck Lee has called out to the government on the delay in according Sabah autonomy and rights under Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63).

“The election results of May 9 which displaced Barisan Nasional (BN-Umno) as the dominant political party in Malaysia had given us some hope that, at last, perhaps, Sabah will be accorded our autonomy and our rights under MA63.

“But after seven months, the picture doesn’t seem rosy after all. “

For instance, Yong claimed that even the ministers in the Sabah Pakatan Haparan (PH) parties and Parti Warisan Sabah (Warisan) were complaining publicly that Putrajaya was not showing them respect and recognition.

He said the federal government was now saying that they had no money to fulfill their promises to return the 40 per cent nett revenues to Sabah, that Petronas would go bankrupt if they gave Sabah the 20 per cent oil royalties promised.

“Contrary to election promises of lavish grants to Sabah, and promises of RM15 billion revenues to the Sabah government, Sabah was allocated only a meagre RM5 billion ringgit in next year’s national budget of RM300 billion.

“This must have come as a rude shock to Sabah ministers in both the Sabah and federal cabinet,” he said at the SAPP congress here yesterday.

To add insult to injury, Yong said the Sabah Democratic Action Party (DAP) leaders who were awarded Datukships by the Head of State were publicly humiliated by their leaders in Kuala Lumpur.

“As a Sabahan, I am sad that Sabah leaders have to endure such ill treatment and public slap in the faces.”

He said there was absolutely no excuse whatsoever to deny Sabah’s 40 per cent nett revenue and the 20 per cent oil royalties because the source of the tax revenues and the oil was Sabah.

“For every RM100 taken from Sabah, after deducting costs, Sabah is entitled to get back 40 per cent.

“For every 100 barrels of oil pumped out from Sabah, we should get back 20 barrels.”

Without Sabah, he said the federal government would not have got a single cent.

“So, whatever that Sabah wants to get back are actually from Sabah anyway.

“Therefore, there is no valid reason whatsoever to deny Sabah’s rights to our own revenues and oil.”

On another note, Yong said it had become apparent that the promise of a “two-party system” in Malaysia had turned into “two parties, one system”.

He said the “two parties, One system” had no meaning for Sabah.

“What we believe to be beneficial for Sabah, Sarawak and Malaya in the Federation of Malaysia, is the preferred “One Federation, Two Systems”.

“The ‘One Federation, two Systems’ can accommodate the uniqueness of Borneo and Malaya within a healthy federal system called Malaysia.”

He also said the creation of the two new ministries in Sabah, namely the Health and People’s Wellbeing Ministry and Education and Innovation Ministry, was superfluous as neither had power nor money to look after health and education.

On the other hand, Yong said the government seemed to be at a loss on how to tackle the economic challenges like falling prices of oil palm, rubber and other commodities.

At the same time, he said some of the causes of the downturn were self-inflicted by the government.

For instance, without considering the damaging impact, he said the government had put a brake on legitimate economic activities such as construction, sand mining, seafood production and forestry.

Unfriendly voices coming from the government have also put a damper on Malaysia as a tourist attraction, he said.

“To make matters worse, our depreciating ringgit is causing imported inflation.

“If we are not able to overcome these economic challenges, then the economic misery will continue for an unnecessarily long period.”

Yong added that it had become embarrassing, indeed alarming, to read the news of some of our ministers.

For instance, he said a federal minister suggested that rubber tappers tap more rubber during the raining season to earn more money.

“It is revealing that that minister said an acre of land could produce up to 15 tonnes of oil palm, which is more than 10 times the reality.”

Furthermore, Yong said the heavy doses of doomsday news coming from national leaders about Malaysia’s financial scandals have affected business confidence.

“At this rate, it is not surprising that there is no end in sight to Sabah’s economic downturn.”