I express my dismay and utter disappointment over the discovery that Sabah’s economic growth is actually the lowest in the country in the last five years during the 10th Malaysian Plan period.
This reality was revealed by the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak himself when he unveiled the 11th Malaysian Plan in Parliament this morning.
According to chapter 2 of 11th Malaysian Plan, Sabah only achieved 3% real economic growth during the 10MP period (2011 to 2015), on par with Perlis which has also 3% growth.
How can Sabah as a big state which is abundant with various resources on par with the development pace of Perlis, a small state in Peninsula?
Look at Sarawak, a state bigger than us in terms of land area, how did they achieve 4.1% while we can’t achieve higher than 3%?
The official figure provided by Prime Minister Office is a big slap to the state government, more so with the Chief Minister Datuk Seri Musa Aman has always been promoted as Father of Modernization for Sabah.
In view of this slowest growth state performance, Musa should openly apologize to the people of Sabah, as he always gives the rakyat false hope.
It is important to review Musa’s pet project, Sabah Development Corridor or Halatuju Sabah, as he promised it would bring changes to the state.
We need to scrutinize project by project, to find the gap between the target and the real situation. Hence, we can move forward and make Sabah achieve higher economic growth in the 11MP period, 2016 to 2020. Such step is crucial as this period is the last lap before Malaysia is to achieve developed country status by 2020.