Some lies for BN to answer
8. Around 50 percent of Federal allocations for Sabah and Sarawak are either not received or delayed, often carried forward to the next National Budget or the next Malaysia Plan. Of funds received, the implementation rate is only about 60 per cent and with habitual delays.
9. There are very few university graduates are from Sabah and Sarawak as compared to those from the Peninsular, and entrances to government-linked universities and college universities are heavily in favour of the West Malaysians Malays;
15. The great and depressing mystery behind the Double Six Tragedy of the 1976 air crash in Sembulan which took the lives of so many of Sabah senior leaders is still unresolved. A book which tries to unravel the story, Golden Son of Kadazan, is still banned by the Federal Government.
16. Among the biggest source of our dissatisfaction is in how our natural resources are being taken from us. Imagine if the oil royalty for Sabah and Sarawak is reviewed to 70 percent backdated to 1976 and with 8 per cent interest for arrears compounded yearly! The amount would be so much it would take care of all of Sabah’s development needs for decades to come. This kind of oil royalty rate is nothing fantastic because it is already practiced by other countries such as Timor Leste, South Sudan, Darfur, Acheh, and under the nationalist movement in Scotland.
Federal Cabinet.
18. If only we had freedom to manage our own resources we would now be richer than Brunei and Singapore.
10. Poverty and abject poverty are still rampant in Sabah and Sarawak with people living in decrepit houses and children malnourished. Often houses in villages hardly have any money in them.
11. Article 153 of the Federal Constitution which guarantees special position for the natives of Sabah and Sarawak, and the New Economic Policy are not being applied in Sabah and Sarawak;
12. The Sabah Chief Minister is chosen by Putrajaya, denying Sabahans its democratic right to choose its CEO. Meanwhile, KL’s invisible hands are interfering in many political and administrative matters in Sabah to favour the Peninsular.
13. There has been blatant gerrymandering of the electoral boundaries to favour Umno who wants to maximise its advantages with the immigrants who had been legalised through the back door, at the expense of disenfranchised bona fide Sabahans;
14. Umno and pro-Umno Malay supremacist NGOs like Perkasa are causing even more disunity among the people of Sabah and Sarawak by fanning racial and religious issues and therefore worsening the problem of racial and religious polarisation. And the BN is not lifting a finger to shut up extremists like Ibrahim Ali;
15. The presence of Peninsular political parties in the Sabah, Sarawak State Legislative Assemblies, or with these parties representing the two states in Parliament, is contrary to the originally intended political autonomies of the two states.
17. The cruel, repressive and obsolete National Cabotage Policy has long been functioning to increase prices of commodities in Sabah and Sarawak to a lot more than those in the Peninsular Malaysia, while local wages are comparatively much lower and employment opportunities are significantly less than they are in the Peninsular. While the policy is causing inflation and other economic pressures for Sabah and Sarawak it has also been seriously impeding industrialisation of the two states because foreign companies avoid setting up operations here due to the higher operation costs compared to those in the Peninsular. The Federal Government doesn’t believe in giving equal economic opportunities for the Borneo states. Is the Cabotage Policy so difficult to dismantle because certain political leaders and business cronies are reaping countless millions from the policy?
18. Air connectivity and internet penetration in Sabah and Sarawak are still very poor, even after a lot of appeals and arguments by local BN leaders and after years of promises by Federal ministers.
19. The infrastructures in Sabah and Sarawak are still very poor compared with those in Singapore, Brunei and Peninsular Malaysia. After half a century, Sabah and Sarawak is still begging for development of basic infrastructures like roads.
22. Sabah is experiencing countless cases of Peninsular Malaysian companies grabbing Native Customary Rights lands and the government is not consistent in handling them, and in many cases appear to be siding the companies.