AT least half of Putrajaya’s development budget should have been allocated to Sabah and Sarawak as both are among the states with the largest contributions to Malaysia’s growth, Sabah opposition party leader Dr Jeffrey Kitingan said today.

Instead, the two Bornean states have been again neglected and remain “at least 30 to 40 years behind” the Peninsular, the Bingkor assemblyman and Sabah State Reform Party chairman said.

“More than 50% of the population does not have clean treated water and still relies on gravity-fed riverine or rainwater. In Budget 2018, only RM300 million is allocated for rural water supply,” he said.

The federal budget for 2018 that was tabled in Parliament yesterday is RM280.25 billion, of which 16% will go towards development while the balance is for operating expenditure.

“A caring federal government would have allocated at least 50% of the development budget for 2018 to Sabah and Sarawak.  

“At this present rate of being ignored, Sabah and Sarawak will never catch up with development in Malaya, which was a very fundamental basis for Sabah and Sarawak to be induced to agree to form Malaysia,” Kitingan said in a statement today.

He noted how Putrajaya would be spending more than RM100 billion on mass rapid transit projects in Kuala Lumpur and the Klang Valley but only RM500 million on rural roads in Sabah and Sarawak.

He also said the Labuan Bridge had earlier been promised under Barisan Nasional’s manifesto for Sabah in the 13th general election, but had now been “downgraded to a feasibility study” under Budget 2018.

“We are lied to again and again,” Kitingan said.

He said both states were among the poorest in the country, with Sabah and Labuan housing 40% of the nation’s poor.

This was despite Sabah and Sarawak being Malaysia’s fifth and third largest contributors to gross domestic product, respectively, through its petroleum and natural gas resources.

“Sabah produces some 65% of the nation’s crude oil production, with the two largest oil production platforms producing 193,000 and 135,000 barrels per day. 

“At the current US$60 (RM254) per barrel, they are worth more than RM83.64 billion annually. In comparison, the latest Terengganu platform only produces 2,000 barrels per day.

“In terms of palm oil, Sabah is the world’s third-biggest producer by region, contributing more than RM20 billion annually,” he said.

Kitingan said Budget 2018 showed that Sabah was “nothing more than a cash cow and a resource-rich far-flung colony exploited to its fullest”.

Kitingan did not address other points in the federal budget yesterday, such as the RM50 million allocation to survey and map customary lands in Sabah and Sarawak, and RM90 million to standardise prices for basic necessities in both states. – October 28, 2017.