Sabah Chief Minister, Datuk Seri Musa Aman was full of hype yesterday about the Sabah Development Corridor (SDC) to be launched by the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi on January 29.
Musa claimed that the SDC, which is to span an 18-year period from 2008 to 2025, is “special” and different from other regional corridor developments in the country in that it would extend to the whole of Sabah instead of being confined to only one area.
Musa has however not explained why the Sabah SDC is the last “corridor” to be announced and launched by the Prime Minister, when it should be the first as Sabah has the worst poverty rate in the whole country.
This is one of the three questions Abdullah should answer when he comes to Sabah on January 29 to launch the SDC, viz:
How the SDC will eradicate poverty in Sabah, which is the worst of all states in the country. In the 1994 Sabah state general election manifesto, Barisan Nasional promised a “Sabah Baru” to reduce the poverty level in Sabah from 33 per cent in 1994 to zero in the year 2000.
Although Barisan Nasional has been in power in Sabah since 1994, there was not only no reduction of Sabah poverty rate to zero in 2000, it registered the highest incidence of poverty rate of 23% after 10 years in 2004 – much higher than the two other poverty-stricken states of Terengganu (15.4%) and Kelantan (10.6%).
Sabah also leads the states in 2004 in the notoriety table of having the worst hard-core poverty at 6.5% as compared to the next three states with the highest incidence, i.e. Terengganu 4.4% and Kedah and Kelantan 1.3%.
The second question Abdullah should answer on January 29 is how the SDC will end the marginalization of the KDM community as the new underclass in Sabah.
Thirdly, how the SDC will uplift the development of Sandakan to be at par with other growth centres.
At present the Sabah Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister both come from Sandakan. But what is the use of having a Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister when Sandakan continues its economic slide as compared to other regions in the state, losing out to Kota Kinabalu, Tawau and Lahad Datuk.
For over a decade, there has been an out-migration of the people of Sandakan to Kota Kinabalu, Lahad Datuk, Tawau and the other regions in Sabah to find a living because of the economic decline in Sandakan.
Let Abdullah address these three questions when he launches the SDC on January 29.
(Media Conference Statement 2 in Sandakan on Sunday, 20th January 2008)