Not long ago, the Prime Minister Najib said that he was waiting for his “Transformation Plans” to be achieved before he calls for the 13th General Elections, and now he has announced the objectives of the Transformation Program were achieved. Looking at it he sounds more like a “magician” than a Prime Minister, and he expected Malaysians to believe him.
Najib’s Transformation Programs are still not being achieved, and here are few good examples:-
-
In Sabah, the people’s living standards have not improved very much. This is evident by the World Bank Report in that Sabah is among the poorest states in Malaysia today as compared with among the richest states in the 60’s and 70’s.
-
More than 100,000 Sabahans are currently jobless. Over 1.2 million Malaysians including Sabahans are working and residing overseas, including those who had migrated.
-
The majority of Sabahans are earning below the minimum income level of RM800. What is the use of the Federal government boasting that the gross national income from RM802.50 in 1957 to RM31,000 in 2012?
-
On average, every Sabahan family spends more than 60% of their household incomes on mortgage loans, car loans and on the repayment of other debts. There is very little left for other expenses or even saving. This is due to the prevailing low economic situation whereby earning extra Ringgit is a real problem. The promise “high personal income nation” remains as NATO (No Action Talk Only).
-
BR1M 2.0 voucher recipients involving 5.369 million families earning less than RM3,000 (US$950) family income is a very good indication that we are very far from achieving a developed nation status by 2020. An average family would be four – husband, wife and two children. The per capita income for a developed nation status is US$15,000.
-
The purchasing power of the Malaysian Ringgit had fallen drastically from Singapore or Brunei $1.00 = RM1.00 in the 70’s to S/B$1.00 = RM2.53 present value. A Malaysian earning RM1,000 would have the equivalent of S/B$400 today. Does this explain why the prices of goods are going sky high? We have not even included inflation in the equation.
-
The Sabah economy is not vibrant enough to generate sufficient business and job opportunities for Sabahans despite the acclaimed huge state reserves. There is the lack of vertical integration (downstream spin-offs) of local resources-based industries to create value-added economic activities.
-
The revenues derived from the Sabah main exported commodities such as petroleum and palm oil benefited only the big oil companies and the big plantation owners and oil millers (in West Malaysia and the Government Link Companies). The small holders did not benefit much. The earned revenue has been siphoned out of Sabah and the poor Sabahans were given the least benefits derived from their own soil. Even worst still, the bulk of the taxes collected from petroleum, palm oil industries and the plantation in Sabah are for the Federal coffer.
-
The high costs of utilities, transportation charges, shipping and port handling charges have contributed to the high cost of living in Sabah and it is among the highest in Malaysia. Besides that, the importation of raw material, finished products, food stuffs, consumer goods and supplies, including our daily bowl of rice had further aggravated the situation.
-
The security in Sabah is sounding an alarm after so many incidents involving foreigners, and now is in the worst case with the Lahad Datu Sulu intrusion. Requests and suggestions from districts police chiefs had been continuously ignored by the Federal government.
-
The major projects planned under the Malaysia Plans were not completed as planned. For example, only RM6.8 billion or 12,568 projects (46.3%) of the RM17 billion or 27,120 projects were completed under the 9th Malaysia Plan. What happened to the 53.7% of the projects?
-
The influx of illegal immigrants has overwhelmed the local Sabah population – the local population is estimated 1.5 million compared with 1.7 million of immigrants (legal and illegal). This had caused many social ills such as crimes, intrusion, rape, robberies, etc.
-
The elections results had for many years been rigged because of the presence of phantom voters and the government had been hanging on to power by dubious means as proven by the RCI on illegal immigrants and particularly the 1999 Likas state election involving Yong Teck Lee which had caused him his job.
-
Dr Mahathir blaming government officers for “abuse of power” in the issuance of “Project IC” to illegal immigrants. As Chief Executive of Malaysia, he was ignorant and unaware of the facts that hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants became Malaysians “new Bumiputra” overnight, were eligible to vote and have Bumiputra rights.
-
Hospitals, medical and health care; agriculture and food security; education system; housing; infrastructure projects such as roads, only 38.9% in Sabah are sealed road as compared to 90% in West Malaysia. The electricity, water, flood, telecommunication and internet services in Sabah are all lacking compared to West Malaysia.
-
The non-performance, non-conformance and failure on executions of development policies and projects is serious.
All the transformation programs would be meaningless when the economic pie is shared and distributed unevenly. The poor will still remain poor and getting the crumbs of RM500 from the government, insufficient to sustain a month of family expenses. Only “cronies” of politicians and the well connected benefit e.g. suppliers, contractors, favored parties and individuals. Corruption and abuses of power are at their peak and the situation does not seem to be reduced. Thus, we do not see any positive transformation achievement as yet, and that is why Najib still hesitate to dissolve the Parliament.