SAPP LETTER TO BADAWI (2008) "SABAH ISSUES"

"Sabah Issues" SAPP Letter to PM In view of many enquiries from members and the public for clarification, we wish to post the following SAPP letter addressed to the PM pressing for urgent issues facing Sabah and its people that needed to be addressed...
(Excerpt from SAPP letter to the Prime Minister on "Sabah Issues")
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7 April 2008 bersamaan 30 Rabiulawal 1429H

Yang Amat Berhormat Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi
Perdana Menteri Malaysia
Pengerusi Barisan Nasional
Pejabat Perdana Menteri Malaysia
Bangunan Perdana Putra
Pusat Pentadbiran Kerajaan Persekutuan
62502 Putrajaya, Malaysia.

Yang Amat Berhormat Datuk Seri,

Sabah

Our warm greetings and welcome to YAB Datuk Seri on the occasion of YAB Datuk Seri's first visit to Sabah after the recent 12th general elections 8 March 2008.

The visit of YAB Datuk Seri and meeting with local representatives is most timely and welcome by the people. We appreciate YAB Datuk Seri for the kind presence. We also thank YAB Datuk Seri Musa Aman, State Chairman of the BN and Chief Minister, for making the arrangements.

Today's meeting is much more appropriate than the reported sending of recce (reconnaissance) teams from the BN HQ in KL to Sabah just because of the opposition parties' wild speculations over the "buying over" of MPs. Recce teams sound like spying and has lent credence to the speculations that Sabah BN MPs can be bought and therefore not reliable.

From what we gather, this meeting today is prompted by the reported unhappiness in Sabah over the under representation of Sabah in the federal administration. I hope the recent voices coming from Sabah are not misconstrued as merely another scramble for more and better Cabinet positions in the Federal Government. Of more concern to the people in Sabah are the many urgent issues facing the State and the people.

1. For a start, political autonomy should be enhanced so that Sabah can manage its own affairs, including the implementation of the Sabah Development Corridor, 9th Malaysia Plan projects and the civil service. There has been talk that the Sabah Development Corridor, like the earlier proposed Regional Development Authority, would involve a surrender of State rights over land and local government to the Federal authorities. This doubt should be cleared once and for all.
   
   
2. Respect for and recognition of the State Government under the leadership of the Chief Minister of the day is basic to our federal system of government. In this respect, the Chief Minister is the true representative of the State and the people. It would not be right that the authority of the Chief Minister is undermined. At times, Sabah representatives bad mouth other Sabah leaders in front of federal leaders. This has made Sabah look divided and therefore easily manipulated.
   
   
3. At the same time, Sabah also needs increased representation at the national main stream, be it political (Cabinet), administrative (civil service) and the economic and social life of the country. A good step would be to revive the Ministry of Special Affairs for Sabah and Sarawak so that the special interests of these two states can be given more focus and attention. Suitably qualified Malaysians from Sabah should be appointed to head the many federal departments in Sabah and foreign diplomatic missions. We are naturally concerned that the reported recruitment recently of 30 new junior officers to the RTM Sabah, all of whom are all non-Sabahans, is a part of a worrying trend.
   
   
4. A non-racial approach to national unity and the empowerment of minority groups are also important in nation building. We must do more to stop the polarization of racial and religious communities in the country. Sabah has been a successful model of a harmonious multi-ethnic community. Lately, the racial and religious polarization of other states has been "imported" into Sabah. This polarisation should be arrested and stopped.
   
   
5. There is also a need to clarify once and for all the validity of post-NEP (New Economic Policy) policies so that any affirmative action must reach the target groups, irrespective of race, that is the people truly in need of assistance. While the BN government in Sabah has been relatively fair in its governance of the State, it is important that poverty eradication efforts, educational opportunities and other affirmative programmes should be based on needs irrespective of race. I do not understand why, even after YAB Datuk Seri's clarification at the post-BN meeting press conference at PWTC on March 10 that the NEP has already expired, that Penang UMNO leaders still chose to demonstrate for the NEP. There is a difference between NEP (a policy) and the Special Position of Malays (and Natives) as provided for in the Constitution.
   
   
6. The government must embark on an immediate action plan to solve the illegal immigrant situation in Sabah, including the syndicated My Kad and other dubious documents, that has been a source of unhappiness among the people. Further to our 1999 Memorandum "Illegal Immigrants: Mother of All Threats", SAPP had also presented the 2006 14-point Memorandum "Time For Direct Preventive Actions". I regret that even after our presentation of the Memorandum to YAB Datuk Seri on 17 October 2006 at the Ministry of Home Affairs, we have not noticed any progress on this front. Foreigner street kids in Sabah are becoming parents of 2nd generation street kids; local men are fathering stateless kids with foreign women, local women are being abandoned as single mothers by foreign men. We are witnessing a generation of stateless kids in a legal twilight zone that is already a nightmare for this and future governments; not to mention the human misery borne out of such a social environment.
   
   
7. Other immediate issues of concern are the closure of the JPPS (Federal Department of Development) in Sabah. JPPS (Sabah) was formed in 1990 in order to channel development funds to Sabah when Sabah was under opposition rule. That remains the core reason for JPPS's existence. For 14 years, Sabah has been under BN rule. The reason for JPPS's existence is long gone.
   
   
8. Sabah has been unfairly burdened by the double taxation on oil palm in the form of cooking oil subsidies paid ever since June 2007. This taxation should be refunded to the oil palm planters concerned. One estimate is that Sabah has contributed 2/3 of the RM 900 million paid (nationally) by oil palm planters as cooking oil subsidies to the Federal government. 10% of the Malaysian population (in Sabah) subsidises 70% of the whole country's consumption. This is an unfair tax for purposes of subsidy. This is against the national interest and must be redressed without delay. On the other hand, Sabah does not benefit from the other rice-producing regions in the country. In fact, we pay more for the rice that we consume in Sabah.
   
   
9. Higher freight charges, exorbitant air fares, increasing costs of living, inefficient internet broad band services, electric power break downs, bureaucratic red tape and a host of other entrenched interests (BERNAS monopoly, proton car prices, newspaper prices, KLIA-spoke and wheel policy (against an open air policy), etc..) have staked up against a State like Sabah. This is because Sabah is the most geographically distant from the chosen hubs in Peninsula Malaysia, namely KLIA, Port Klang, Tanjung Pelepas and so on. Increasingly, even business decisions by major companies such as banks are made in Kuala Lumpur. To order a cheque book or to get an approval certificate from CIDB to import toilet bowls have to be referred to their respective HQs in KL. These fundamental in-built imbalances make our State less competitive and more dependent on federal assistance. There are countless other examples. Even TV3 is not available in some parts of Sabah. The list goes on..........
   
   
10. Another latest glaring example of federal negligence is the abrupt way that the Money Lenders Act 1951 (Act 400) was extended to Sabah on 1 January 2008. No mechanism was put in place to administer the new law. This has caused much confusion, financial losses and potential legal disputes in Sabah. How can this be allowed to happen in the first place? How can the Sabah Money Lenders Ordinance 1901 (Sabah Cap 81) be brushed aside just like that? Where is the hurry to displace an already established administration of the Sabah Money Lenders Ordinance that has worked well for a century? Now, Sabah is left to bear the consequent losses.
    
    
11. I also propose to make legally binding (on the Federal Treasury) the compensation of loss of revenues due to Sabah under the Part V of the 10th Schedule of the Federal Constitution (Additional Sources of Revenue Assigned to Borneo States). This relates to import duty and excise duty on petroleum products in Sabah and Sarawak. Parliamentary amendments (necessitated by the Asean Free Trade Area (AFTA) pact) to the Sales Tax Act 1972 in 1999 had caused Sabah and Sarawak to lose this revenue which amounted to about RM 200 million per annum per state. In Parliament on 23 December 1999, I debated for the postponement of the amendment until this matter has been cleared by the Sabah and Sarawak State governments. So the Federal Ministry of Finance undertook to Parliament that any losses caused to the States of Sabah and Sarawak will be fully compensated. But it has become a difficult annual exercise to get the full amounts paid to the State; even the calculation is subject to dispute. Therefore, there is this need to make the annual compensation legally binding. This is only asking for what is rightly due to the State.
    
    
12. The Special Status of the High Courts in Sabah and Sarawak under Article 121 of the Federal Constitution must be borne in mind too. The amendments to the Sabah Advocates Ordinance 1953 proposed by the Sabah Law Association has been long overdue to be made into federal law. This is so that the Legal Profession Act need not be extended to Sabah (and Sarawak). At the same time, it is also important that Sabah (and Sarawak) will not be left out of any positive reforms to the legal profession and judiciary as proposed by the de facto Law Minister recently. More importantly, the proposed reforms should not dilute the legal profession and judiciary in Sabah (and Sarawak) as has been attempted many times by the federal authorities.
    
    
13. I am heartened with YAB Datuk Seri's decision that the Penang Second Link (bridge) should not be built using Petronas money. Petrol money has nothing to do with Penang. Petronas only has the right to extract the oil. Ownership lies with Sabah and a few other States. Instead, I propose that Petronas money should be used to build the Labuan bridge because Labuan needs a bridge to the main land.
    
    
14. Granted that the Barisan Nasional Government has done a lot for Sabah, now is also the time to press for an urgent solution to the matters that I have quickly mentioned herewith. I believe that other people will have additional matters to bring up. For example, as early as the election night March 8 at Sri Gaya, several leaders including UMNO YBs were chatting that this is now the time to seek an increase of oil royalties to 20%! Some BN leaders were clearly hopeful that Sabah would get a much bigger representation in the Federal Cabinet. Of course, as we all know, this has not happened. I see that some UMNO and BN component leaders remain shy about the issues I have listed above. This is because it has been taboo and could be politically-suicidal in BN and UMNO to speak of State autonomy and State rights. Please, therefore, allow me to voice this out for I know they are in agreement with me.

Our detractors will say that Sabah politicians are taking advantage of the current national political scenario in making demands. Please, if I may say so, the points hereinabove are what many Malaysians in Sabah have been saying for years. Many Sabah representatives and civil servants have been banging their heads against the brick wall of federal bureaucracy.

YAB Datuk Seri is rightly credited with liberalising the political environment and allowing more space for frank views. Hopefully, the results of the 12th general elections have also opened up the minds of the political and bureaucratic establishments to be more accommodating to divergent ideas.

It is because I feel that we will have a better chance of success today, that I raise the matters herein. With this success, BN would not have to fear losing the support of the people or their MPs in Sabah. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity for us in Sabah to re-look at our political status and our worth. I thank YAB Datuk Seri for the kind attention, please.

Thank you.

Yang benar,


Datuk Yong Teck Lee
President