SAPP criticises Yayasan Sabah Tower fees

KOTA KINABALU: Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) deputy president Datuk Richard Yong We Kong said Yayasan Sabah would not help tourism by charging fees on tourists coming to take pictures of its tower.

“The reason that the collection of fees is needed to maintain the roads as given by Yayasan Sabah is not convincing, because the roads have always been maintained by the government,” he said in a statement here yesterday.

Tour buses and vans do not cause major damage to the roads. As some 70 buses and vans visit per day, Yayasan Sabah stands to receive about RM3,000 per day (RM100,000 per month), Yong noted.

“It would be more convincing to believe that Yayasan Sabah, already the biggest governmentlinked company (GLC) in Sabah, wants to make profit at the expense of the fledgling tourism industry.

“This would make Sabah a laughing stock. Imagine if London were to charge tourists and locals for taking pictures of Buckingham Palace, Sydney to charge for taking pictures of the Opera House, Putrajaya buildings, KLCC, Beijing Olympic Stadium, and so on,” he said.

Yong said the imposition of entrance fees would kill Yayasan Sabah's own local batik and handicrafts store located within its building.

As a government agency, he said, Yayasan Sabah should help to promote Sabah tourism instead of ‘squeezing' the goose that lays the golden eggs.