Posted on

Two parliamentary questions on Najib’s three strategic initiatives to transform Malaysia but which have run aground

In the forthcoming parliamentary meeting beginning on Monday, I have given notice to pose two questions to the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak on his three strategic initiatives to transform Malaysia but which have run aground because of strong opposition mostly from Umno and its outsourced organizations like Perkasa.

These three initiatives of Najib are his three strategic pillars which make up his roadmap to achieving Vision 2020 – an high-income advanced nation with inclusiveness and sustainability by 2020:

  • 1Malaysia, People First, Performance Now;

  • Government Transformation Programme; and

  • New Economic Model.

My two questions are to ask the Prime Minister:

Posted on

No Kaamatan promotion at airports — Kit Siang

By Chok Sim Yee | The Borneo Post

KOTA KINABALU: Pesta Kaamatan (Harvest Festival) is one of the highlights in the Sabah annual calendar of events, but sadly, not much effort has been made to promote the cultural event, even at the main gateways to the state — the airports.

At least this was what Democratic Action Party (DAP) advisor Lim Kit Siang noticed when he arrived yesterday.

Claiming that there was not much effort done by the federal government to recognise and promote Pesta Kaamatan, he said this defeats the whole meaning of the 1Malaysia concept, which was the brainchild of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak.

“Pesta Kaamatan is the most important celebration in Sabah but sadly, I do not see any Pesta Kaamatan-related decorations when I arrived at the airport,” he said, pointing out that it was the best place to promote the event as it is the first place to welcome incoming tourists, be it domestic or foreign.

He also questioned why Najib could not even spare some time to attend such an important programme.
Continue reading “No Kaamatan promotion at airports — Kit Siang”

Posted on

The destruction of SMILES in the Land Below the Wind

Letters
by P.S. Nathan

I served as the Timbalan Pengarah Kesihatan (Pergigian) for Negeri Sabah from August 1987 to Nov 1990, In short I was posted from Johore to Sabah to take charge of the Dental Service there.

In 1985 a Survey of Dental Health of the School Children in Sabah was carried out, and I was part of that team that conducted that survey. My team covered mainly the East Coast area of Lahad Datu, Semporna and Padang Tunku area.I was also a member of the Committee that drafted the Survey report, and the Committee made Recommendations for the improvement of the Status of Dental Health of the School Children of Sabah.One of the main recomendations was that all Public Water Supplies should be Fluoridated.

In 1989 the then Sabah State Government took the most Unfortunate step of ‘discontinuing the Fluoridation of Public Water supplies in the State of Sabah’ Because “Water” was a state matter, the Ministry of Health could not do anything besides presenting the Report of the Special Committee of the World Health Organisation’ that did indeed recommend the “Fluridation (the optimisation of Fluoride levels) of the Public Water Supplies.That Special Committee of the World Health Organisation also noted that ‘Fluoridation of Public water supplies was the Most Cost-Effective Public Health Measure known to man’. Continue reading “The destruction of SMILES in the Land Below the Wind”

Posted on

Why SUPP candidate Lau Hui Yew is like other Barisan Nasional Ministers and leaders who have no confidence in their own school system by sending their children to international schools or overseas?

[Speech (2) at the launching of the Rejang Park Operation Centre of the DAP Sibu by-election campaign on Friday, 7th May 2010]

Another headline in Borneo Post today is “Zahid: Vote for Hui Yew to be heard in Dewan Rakyat”.

My first reaction is one of great skepticism and to ask why the SUPP candidate Robert Lau Hui Yew is like other Barisan Nasional Ministers and leaders who have no confidence in their own school system by sending their children to international schools or overseas.

Will Hui Yew speak up in Parliament against the national educational system over which he, like other BN Ministers and leaders, have no confidence by not sending their own children to them?

DAP candidate for Sibu by-election Wong Ho Leng has five children, all in the local schools – three in secondary and two in primary.

I have been informed that Robert Lau2 has sent all his three children to the international school in Kuching. Continue reading “Why SUPP candidate Lau Hui Yew is like other Barisan Nasional Ministers and leaders who have no confidence in their own school system by sending their children to international schools or overseas?”

Posted on

DAP fully supports PAS proposal for a suit to be filed against the federal government for ceding away the oil-rich offshore Blocks L and M in South China Sea

DAP fully supports the PAS proposal for a suit to be filed against the Federal Government for ceding away the oil-rich offshore Blocks L and M in South China Sea to protect the rights of future generations of Sarawakians, Sabahans and Malaysians.

Kelantan state councillor Husam Musa yesterday proposed a legal suit against the federal government for ceding away the oil-rich maritime boundary areas to Brunei.

DAP endorses Husam’s demands and calls on the Prime Minister to issue a White Paper pertaining to all the following issues:

• Reveal to the public all communiques between Putrajaya, Brunei, Sabah, Sarawak and national oil company Petronas pursuant to the ceding of the boundary areas.

• Report all decisions made by the cabinet about the matter.

• Convene a royal commission of inquiry to investigate the issue. Continue reading “DAP fully supports PAS proposal for a suit to be filed against the federal government for ceding away the oil-rich offshore Blocks L and M in South China Sea”

Posted on

Sabah villagers find a sympathetic listener in Lim

By Queville To | FMT

KOTA KINABALU: Villagers in the east coast of Sabah who have problems getting the government’s attention have an international stage to turn to, said DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang.

Speaking to villagers of Kg Murut, Kalabakan in Tawau, Lim said the world now knows about the plight of the natives of Sabah.

He told the villagers that he had put out information (on his blog, among others) on issues affecting the natives of Sabah, including dispossession of their lands.

During his visit, a group of more than 50 villagers brought their complaints about the poor conditions they were living in and their worries about how they would soon become landless.

They claimed that much of their ancestral lands had already been taken over by plantation companies.
Continue reading “Sabah villagers find a sympathetic listener in Lim”

Posted on

47 years in Malaysia – why Muruts feel strangers in their own land?

On Sunday, 2nd May 2010, DAP leaders including DAP Deputy Chairman Senator Tunku Aziz, DAP MP for Serdang, Teoh Nien Ching and DAP Sabah Assemblyman Jimmy Wong, DAP Sabah Publicity Secretary Dr. Edwin Bosie and I visited Kampong Murut, Ulu Kalabakan.

It was a long bumpy ride from Tawau to Kalabakan but worse is to come in the next stretch of the Trans-Borneo Highway, from Kalabakan to Sapulut which I have termed as the Highway Rip-off of Sabah – as a 179km permanent bitumunous road with sealed pavement turned out, after prolonged delays, into a gravel road!

The video clip is my speech asking why Muruts feel strangers in their own land while foreigners have come to regard themselves as owners of the Land Below the Wind.

Posted on

DAP leaders’ visit to Tawau, Marotai and Kalabakan – tweets

Boarding AA 4Tawau 2k ppl #SaveSabahSaveMalaysia Dinner org by DAPSriTanjong SA JimmyWong Also attending MPs TunkuAziz TonyPua Nienchin Hiew
12:14 AM Apr 30th

Serdang DAP MP TeoNieChing renders song 2flag off fund collection #Sibu byelection #212 @Tawau DAP #SSSM dinner JimmyWong Hiew TonyPua spoke
6:58 AM Apr 30th

BION In Tawau last wk lawlessness contd 1who withdrew RM60k from BankBumiputera was robbed near bank At police station he was told 2lodge rpt when robber had been nabbed!
9:02 AM Apr 30th

Labour Day Malaysian workers twin challenges: 1fair fruits of labour in workplace 2workers’ power 2create a more just equal prosperous Msia
2:38 PM Apr 30th
Continue reading “DAP leaders’ visit to Tawau, Marotai and Kalabakan – tweets”

Posted on

Barisan Nasional warned that they will lose Sabah as a “fixed deposit” if the basic rights and interests of Sabahans continue to be marginalized and discriminated

I regret that the Cabinet has neither taken Parliament seriously nor the long-standing problems and grievances of the people of Sabah.

The Prime Minister’s Department has five Ministers apart from the Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister as well as five deputy ministers, but not a single one of them rose in Parliament to answer issues about Sabah development neglect, whether during the winding-up of the debate on the Royal Address or during the committee stage debate on the Prime Minister’s Department on the 2009 supplementary estimates.

Just laid on the table is the 2009 annual report of Suhakam. A staple criticism of MPs and the civil society is the failure of Parliament to have any specific debate on the Suhakam annual reports in the past nine years.

I want to ask Barisan Nasional MPs whether they take the Suhakam annual reports seriously, as most BN MPs would not even open the Suhakam annual reports to read them.

For instance, in the latest Suhakam report on its activities in Sabah, various long-standing problems of Sabahans were referred to.
Continue reading “Barisan Nasional warned that they will lose Sabah as a “fixed deposit” if the basic rights and interests of Sabahans continue to be marginalized and discriminated”

Posted on

Najib should conduct an inquiry as to why his Department has five Ministers and five Deputy Ministers yet nobody in Parliament to answer issues about Sabah development neglect?

The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak, should conduct an inquiry as to why the Prime Minister’s Department has five Ministers and five Deputy Ministers yet nobody in Parliament to answer issues about Sabah development neglect?

This has happened twice in the past week.

Yesterday, during the 2009 Supplementary Estimates debate in the committee stage on the Prime Minister’s Department, which asked for a RM10 million allocation for the Sabah Development Economic Corridor, I had asked whether this was part of the RM1 billion special allocation for infrastructure development of Sabah which was announced by the then Prime Minister, Tun Abdullah when he visited Sabah in May 2008.

If yes, why the RM1 billion special allocation for development was not fully spent by 2008 if not by 2009, asking for full particulars on the breakdown of this RM1 billion special allocation for Sabah.

I also raised the target of projected GDP per capita for Sabah in 2020 under the Sabah Development Economic Corridor Blueprint 2008-2025, which is RM11,571 –more than five times less than the projected target of per capita GNP  of US$17,700 (RM57,348) for Malaysia for 2020 – highlighting the continued scandal of the degradation and deterioration of Sabah from the richest state to the poorest state in Malaysia in five decades.

But there was no answer from any Minister or Deputy Minister during the winding-up of the debate yesterday, as if Sabah simply does not exist in the eyes of the Prime Minister’s Department.
Continue reading “Najib should conduct an inquiry as to why his Department has five Ministers and five Deputy Ministers yet nobody in Parliament to answer issues about Sabah development neglect?”

Posted on

Meeting of Sabahans in Klang Valley postponed from April 18 to May 16 KL/Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall because of Hulu Selangor by-election

Two weeks ago on March 25, 2010 I had announced a meeting of Sabahans in the Klang Valley at the Petaling Jaya Civics Centre on April 18, but this has now been postponed to Sunday May 16 at 2 pm at the KL/Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall because of the Hulu Selangor by-election, whose nomination is April 17 and polling April 25.

The idea of a meeting of Sabahans in Klang Valley is the result of my two recent visits to the Sabah interior together with DAP MPs Hiew King Cheu (Kota Kinabalu), Teo Nie Ching (Serdang), Lim Lip Eng (Segambut) and Jimmy Wong, DAP Sabah state Assemblymen for Sri Tanjong, including Kota Belud, Tuaran, Keningau, Tambunan, Sepanggar, Donggongon and Kampong Inobong in Penampang for first-hand information about the neglect of socio-economic rights and development as well as the frustrations of the people of Sabah.

Wherever we went, we encountered concerns about the plight of Sabahans stranded in the Klang Valley, particularly following media reports early this year of homeless Sabahans who had to scavenge for food from garbage bins outside restaurants in the Klang Valley.

Sabahans back home were shocked that Sabah youths, who had gone to the national capital to seek greener pastures, were roaming the streets and relying on food served by NGOs and on leftovers in dustbins for an additional meal.
Continue reading “Meeting of Sabahans in Klang Valley postponed from April 18 to May 16 KL/Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall because of Hulu Selangor by-election”

Posted on

Five issues for Najib to prove he is serious about “inclusive growth” to Sabahans

Finally, I want to end with a special reference to Sabah as ordinary Sabahans feel that they had been marginalised and left out of the national development and progress for since the formation of Malaysia some five decades ago.

If the Prime Minister is serious and sincere about inclusive growth, the Federal government should make Sabahans feel a full and equal part of 1Malaysia,and I recommend five priority areas for its immediate attention and action:

  1. Satisfactory resolution to the long-standing problem of illegal immigrants in Sabah, causing the Sabah population to multiply from some 400,000 during the formation of Malaysia in 1963 to over three million today. During his visit to Sabah last September, the Prime Minister had promised resolution of the illegal immigrant problem and this seems to have been completely forgotten.

  2. Eradication of poverty in Sabah. Barisan Nasional had promised to eradicate poverty in 2000 but it is now 2010 and Sabah has the highest poverty rate in the country.

  3. Massive development of basic infrastructure in Sabah to provide roads, piped water, electricity and broadband to Sabahans.

    4. Continue reading “Five issues for Najib to prove he is serious about “inclusive growth” to Sabahans”

Posted on

Meeting of Sabahans in the Klang Valley at PJ Civics Centre on April 18 at 2pm

Together with DAP MPs Hiew King Cheu (Kota Kinabalu), Teo Nie Ching (Serdang) and Lim Lip Eng (Segambut), and DAP Sabah State Assemblyman for Sri Tanjong Jimmy Wong, I made two visits to various parts of Sabah in the past month – Kota Kinabalu, Kota Belud, Tuaran, Keningau, Tambunan, Sepanggar, Donggongon and Kampong Inobong, Penampang for first-hand information about the neglect of socio-economic development and the frustrations of the people of Sabah.

Wherever we went, we encountered concerns about the plight of Sabahans stranded in the Klang Valley, particularly following media reports early this year of homeless Sabahans who had to scavenge for food from garbage bins outside restaurants in the Klang Valley.

Sabahans back home were shocked that Sabah youths, who had gone to the national capital to seek greener pastures, were roaming the streets and relying on food served by NGOs and on leftovers in dustbins for an additional meal.

Various reasons have been given for their homeless status and these include being cheated by unscrupulous agents who brought them to Kuala Lumpur and abandoned them to cope with the bright lights on the city.
Continue reading “Meeting of Sabahans in the Klang Valley at PJ Civics Centre on April 18 at 2pm”

Posted on

Najib should give Liow Tiong Lai an ultimatum to resolve the Sabah health crisis or be sacked

I am shocked and outraged by a letter I have received from a serving medical officer of Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Kota Kinabalu about the deplorable conditions of the hospital complexes in Sabah particularly Kota Kinabalu which had been likened to Vietnam refugee camp.

Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai had been Health Minister for more than two years and despite repeated complaints, he had turned a complete deaf ear and blind eye to the prolonged healthcare crisis and the deplorable hospital conditions in Sabah particularly in Kota Kinabalu.

The serving doctor in QEH wrote of the horrors suffered by the sick in Kota Kinabalu where they are subjected to “a wicked game of musical chairs” shunted around various hospital centres according to their changing healthcare needs as “there is not a single centre that can address a patient as a whole”.

The medical maze, which has brought total chaos to healthcare services in Sabah, includes the state’s only referral centre, Queen Elizabeth Hosptal and nearby centres like Hospital Bukit Padang the mental institution, Hospital Likas, the makeshift hospital in Lingzhi Museum in Kepayan and Umno’s favourite Sabah Medical Centre (SMC). Continue reading “Najib should give Liow Tiong Lai an ultimatum to resolve the Sabah health crisis or be sacked”

Posted on

Rumah Sakit Yang Sakit

An Open Letter to Health Minister

Dear Yang Berkhidmat Liow Tiong Lai,

Mr. Wong, an elderly man presented at Hospital Likas because of severe breathlessness and was found to have severe pneumonia on chest x-ray.

He was then admitted to the High Dependency Unit of Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) 30 minutes away for treatment.

He improved after six days and was then transferred to the normal ward for further recuperation.

A bed was urgently needed one day later and the frail Mr. Wong was then shipped off to Hospital Bukit Padang for ‘rehabilitation’.
Continue reading “Rumah Sakit Yang Sakit”

Posted on

DAP to assist Sabahans stranded in Peninsula

By Queville To | Free Malaysia Today

DAP Mojuntin statue

PENAMPANG: DAP is planning to go in search of destitute Sabahans stranded in Peninsular Malaysia.

A special gathering is being planned for them in the Klang Valley to listen to their plight and to find ways to help them.

Speaking at a news conference here, Ipoh Timor DAP MP Lim Kit Siang said the gathering was tentatively fixed for April 18.

“We call on all the Sabahans currently working or stranded in Peninsular Malaysia to come to this meeting so that their voices can be heard.”

The meeting is being organised by the Sabah DAP chief-cum-MP for Kota Kinabalu Dr Hiew King Cheu, and coordinated by DAP MPs for Serdang and Segambut, Teo Nie Ching and Lim Lip Eng.
Continue reading “DAP to assist Sabahans stranded in Peninsula”

Posted on

Why is Sabah still poor? asks Kit Siang

By Queville To | Free Malaysia Today

Batu Sumpah, Sabah

KOTA KINABALU: DAP parliamentary leader Lim Kit Siang has called for the establishment of a Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) on whether the expectations of Sabahans and Sarawakians in forming Malaysia had been fulfilled or betrayed over the past 50 years.

He stressed that this would be appropriate in view of the fact that in 2013 the country would mark the 50th anniversary of the formation of Malaysia.

“Have the people of Sabah been granted their full citizenship rights as Malaysians in the past five decades?

“Let the debate and soul-searching begin as to how one of the richest states in Sabah had been reduced in five decades to become the poorest state in the federation,” he said in a statement issued here on Saturday following a visit to Keningau.
Continue reading “Why is Sabah still poor? asks Kit Siang”

Posted on

Lim to Najib: Explain ‘massive’ oil find

Free Malaysia Today

KOTA KINABALU: DAP Parliamentary leader Lim Kit Siang wants the government to disclose full details of an alleged new oilfield discovered by national oil company Petronas.

“I call on the PM Datuk Seri Najib (Razak) to make a ministerial statement in parliament tomorrow (today) on this very important subject, the biggest oil find in the Malaysian history and the role of Petronas because Petronas is now contributing about 42 per cent to the country’s revenue,” he told reporters here yesterday.

Lim was commenting on Gua Musang MP Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah’s statement on Saturday that he had been told of the discovery of a new oilfield by Petronas, which could be the biggest oilfield in the world.

“I have heard about this but up to now the government has not made any announcement. I think this should not be kept under-wraps.

“Malaysians have a right to know as it will mean that the future of Malaysia will be cast in a different light.
Continue reading “Lim to Najib: Explain ‘massive’ oil find”

Posted on

Sabah power supply scandal deepens

By Queville To | Free Malaysia Today

PENAMPANG: The electricity supply scandal in Sabah has taken a new twist.

Figures disclosed by the state and federal power utility companies are at variance with each other and do not add up, according to a top parliamentarian.

The discrepancies are so great that DAP Parliamentary leader Lim Kit Siang has questioned whether the persisting poor and worsening System Average Interruption Duration Index (SAIDI) on power supply in the state was genuine, or a deliberate fix.

He believes it could be part of measures to create a ‘panic situation’, so as to compel the people to accept the controversial coal-fired power plant.

He said suspicion arose from the consistent disparity in the SAIDI figures that were given out by the Federal Energy, Green Technology and Water Minister, Peter Chin Fa Kui, the Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB), Sabah Electricity Sdn Bhd (SESB) and the Energy Commission Malaysia.
Continue reading “Sabah power supply scandal deepens”