Saturday, December 4, 2010

Yong: Sabah govt in denial over poverty

By Queville To

KOTA KINABALU: The poor in Sabah may have just got a little poorer following the nationwide hike in petrol and sugar prices. But the state government is in denial and claims that "all is well."
Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) president Yong Teck Lee, however, is demanding that the government “show us the real numbers” to substantiate its claims that poverty is not a serious problem in Sabah.

Yong said that if the government used real facts and figures ,the truth would be out.

“Chief Minister (Musa Aman), like other ministers recently, again cited the so-called e-Kasih data to put the number of hardcore poor household heads (KIRMT) at only 7,455.

“In fact, on the ground, 'e-Kasih' has already been discredited as being 'p-Kasih' meaning 'pilih kasih' (favouritism) because e-Kasih involves cash handouts to selected persons.

"Not all poor people are registered under e-Kasih. Any grassroots leader who walks around a poor village will come across many hardcore poor villagers who say they have been excluded from the e-Kasih programme,” said Yong, a former chief minister.

He also questioned the validity of Musa’s recent statement that the number of poor families in Sabah is 24,247.

Musa's disclosure was in striking contrast with a World Bank report on poverty in Malaysia, which stated that 40% of the nation’s poor lived in Sabah. Sabah, the report noted, was the poorest state in the country.

“According to the Federal Minister of Agriculture and Agro-based Industry (Noh Omar) recently, 150,000 families in Malaysia received rice subsidy coupons worth RM10 each every month. Obviously, these are poor families.

“If 40% of these families are in Sabah, it gives us a figure of 60,000 such families. Even if the figures by Noh or the World Bank are not 100% accurate, the figure is way above 24,247.

"The Ninth Malaysia Plan mid-term report by the federal Economic Planning Unit listed Sabah as the poorest state, with a 23% poverty level, the highest in Malaysia. These are hard facts,” he said.

Baseless claims

Yong said that Musa and his ministers should stop making baseless claims that poverty in Sabah is not as bad as it really is.

He urged the relevant authorities to make public the latest data used to calculate the poverty line by which a family is classified as poor, in view of the increase in cost of living in Sabah.

“What is the poverty line income for a family of five in the rural and urban areas? Has this poverty line taken into consideration the latest increases in prices of basic necessities?

“Every villager knows that the costs of goods and transport have gone up repeatedly in the last two years, starting with the drastic fuel increases in June 2008,” he said.

"In some remote regions like Banggi, the so-called fuel subsidy scheme to transport rice, sugar and other necessities to keep prices low has collapsed when the budget for fuel was exhausted last month.

"Even the 20-sen plastic tubes of cooking oil, sugar and other basic necessities in Sandakan villages have shrunk in size.

“The lack of teachers and doctors, piped water and housing, and problems of the landless and infant mortality rate, compound the misery faced by the poor in Sabah,” he said.

Yong said that unlike in many countries and societies where education has helped pluck poor family out of the poverty cycle, the education system in Malaysia had failed the younger generation by producing many illiterate school leavers with little skills.

“In the past, families at least had their children who earned some income to sustain the families.
“The over-reliance on foreign workers has aggravated manpower planning and low productivity in the workforce.

"These are the issues that the World Bank had identified but the BN politicians have chosen to brush aside these inconvenient truths,” he said.

He added that the state government, instead of going into denial and finding excuses for poverty in the state, should be expediting poverty reduction programmes.

The BN state government, he said, should demand more aid and favourable policies from the federal government "to spur economic growth, reduce costs of doing business in Sabah, assist local workers and alleviate youth unemployment”.

29 comments:

  1. Musang bin tidak aman mau cover muka dia cakap yang tak betul untuk menipu rakyat, kata bilangan kemiskinan di sabah sudah turun.

    I would like to ask how the government to determine if a family is below poverty? In what salary scale?

    With the high cost of living now due to inflation in Sabah, don't tell me a family with 5 members for example total income less than RM1000 will only consider under poverty. This will totally bullshit and trying to cheat the rakyat.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Many unaware kentucky chicken and so-called Big-burger also have shrunk its size at higher price!!!
    Many are still paid at salary scale comparable to 20 years ago but less value exchange.
    Matikudasai!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I would like to know how does the world bank did their survey? Did they come over to count heads? Or they just assume, don't forget that the illegal immigrants must not be included.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I still can't get over the fact that Sabah is known as the poorest states. How is it possible when Sabah is currently developing??

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anonymous said... December 15, 2010 9:35 AM

    I agree with Anonymous there. For all we know, the world bank has included the illegal immigrants in their survey. Do take note, there are many PATI in Sabah and majority of them are very poor.

    ReplyDelete
  6. kebnyakan yang miskin di Sabah adalah golongan PATI, tanpa PATI Sabah takkan manjadi miskin.

    ReplyDelete
  7. There's never been a wonderful day living in Sabah. The water shortage, no electricity and more is making all of us "big headed".

    ReplyDelete
  8. We are poor and helpless. When are there going to be chances for the people?

    ReplyDelete
  9. We need people to gather and fight for our rights.

    ReplyDelete
  10. kita kena berusaha keluar dari kemiskinan.

    ReplyDelete
  11. setuju dengan alai..kita kena berusaha untuk keluar dari kemiskinan dan usaha sedang dilakukan.

    ReplyDelete
  12. How about the opposition? Did they do something on that matter?

    ReplyDelete
  13. bagaimana kamu mendapatkan wang? bekerja atau menunggu bantuan atau simpati orang lain? kalau mahu duit, kerja dan usaha sendiri. bangsa lain boleh maju tanpa bantuan, kenapa rakyat Sabah tidak? malah disalahkan pula politik.. mengharapkan bantuan sampai bila2 pun tidak akan maju walaupun SAPP memerintah 1000 tahun.

    ReplyDelete
  14. bs.. no, they only know how to play around with the issue for their political interests. mana SAPP ketika kerajaan sibuk membasmi kemiskinan di semua daerah? mana SAPP ketika kerajaan sibuk menganjurkan expo kerjaya? tiada.. mereka hanya muncul bila ada isu yang boleh mereka permainkan..

    ReplyDelete
  15. konon prihatin dengan isu kemiskinan di Sabah tapi beliau sendiri banyak melakukan tindakan2 yang merugikan rakyat Sabah ketika beliau menjadi KM Sabah. kenapa tidak basmi kemiskinan masa itu? tempoh dua tahun cukup untuk rakyat merasa derita hingga hari ini, entah bagimana jadinya jika beliau mempunyai masa 10 atau 20 tahun.

    ReplyDelete
  16. you have to look the bigger picture when discussing about poverty...

    instead of generally making assumption based on the accumulated number of poor in Sabah, a study should be made by classifying the poor by its race...

    from there we can make assumption whether the poor sabahan is actually a sabahan or not...

    the muslim bumiputera should not be classified as 'malay' in the study, but to be classified by their real race...

    just a suggestion...

    ReplyDelete
  17. state govt is trying their best to eradicating poverty in sabah..in other hand, YTL only bising2 here and there..why not ask himself what he can do to help govt to eradicating this issue?

    ReplyDelete
  18. YTL just making an assumption base on Noh Omar statement and the WB report recently..this means what he said was not accurate..he just twisting on what Noh said and the report..

    ReplyDelete
  19. we can say that not all the poor people registered under the e-Kasih..then as a leader, MPs and so on its their responsibility to find them who was not registered..even opposition can help the poor to register..its better than just talk but no action like what YTL is doing..

    ReplyDelete
  20. hoping that politicians will not use this issue as their political tools..

    ReplyDelete
  21. eradicating poverty is our responsibility..not just one side problem..so, stop the talk and start the walk!

    ReplyDelete
  22. YONG what you know about this??

    ReplyDelete
  23. Jangan hanya suka mempolitikan hal ini tapi tiada langkah untuk membantu.

    ReplyDelete
  24. Sabah has the highest amount of PTIs but I strongly disagree that Sabah is the poorest state in the whole world.

    ReplyDelete
  25. Apa yang penting sekarang ialah halau PTI keluar dari Sabah.

    ReplyDelete
  26. We are not living in a denial.

    ReplyDelete
  27. So many stupid dumb dumb Barisan Najis fans here to defend their evil master assssno.

    No wonder Singapore government said Malaysia leaders are all in-competence!!! LOL

    If you from assssno do not how to manage Sabah, just GET LOST and RESIGN!!! Sudah 16 tahun asssno di Sabah, bukan kelmarin saja.

    Give chance for those who are more capable to run and manage Sabah.

    Apa SAPP boleh buat untuk menurunkan kemiskinan di Sabah? Senang aje. PECAT dan HANTAR semua Kaki RASUAH ke zoo negara. Rasuah adalah MUSUH UTAMA di negara kita. Tepuk dada tanya selera, orang dari umno tak pernah RASUAH ka dari sejak dulu sampai sekarang?

    RASUAH Tak DOSA ke dalam ajaran agama? orang umno, Jangan aje tipu Allah, Allah tahu niat satan kamu!

    ReplyDelete
  28. Sabah miskin disebabkan kebanjiran PATI yang banyak.

    ReplyDelete
  29. I would like to know how the poverty is measured?

    ReplyDelete

Search This Blog