IN Sabah’s east coast town of Semporna, a multimillion ringgit bridge that was never built has become a symbol of the power play that existed between Chief Minister Musa Aman and Warisan president Shafie Apdal when he was still in Umno.

Shafie was then Umno vice-president and rural and regional development minister. 

In 2012, former prime minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi had approved the construction of a 1.4km-long bridge linking Bum Bum island, home to around 30,000 people living in 34 villages along the island’s coastline, to Semporna on the mainland.

The island is separated from the mainland by the Tando Bulong channel, which locals call Terusan Tando Bulong.

The cost for Bum Bum bridge was RM430 million in 2012. 

When former works minister Shaziman Abu Mansor was in Tawau to announce the approval of the project, he said it proved that the federal government does not sideline any states when it comes to development.

The design for the bridge was then expected to be completed within a year, and Shaziman said RM25 million had been released for preliminary design costs. 

Five years on, the people on Bum Bum are still waiting for their bridge.

“You need land to build the bridge but land is a state matter,” Warisan deputy information chief Hisham Fattah said.

“So, to build the federally-approved bridge, you need the involvement of the state government to allocate the land.

“But the chief minister has refused to allocate any land for the bridge.”

Hisham said the state government has yet to conduct any activities associated with such a large project, such as an environmental impact assessment (EIA) study.

“Nothing was done then and nothing is being done now to show that there is any seriousness in building the bridge.

“Everything is just a promise.”

Retired civil servant Ghulam Miralam pulled no punches when he said the chief minister refused to allocate the land “because he does not want Shafie to take the credit and look good”.

Shafie is now a five-term MP for Semporna, a largely Bajau town that has become a magnet for Filipino Suluks fleeing the strife in southern Philippines.

Apart from language, Suluks share the same culture as Bajaus.

“What we have heard is that the chief minister wanted the federal government to channel the money to the state government rather than to Shafie’s former ministry to implement the project.”

Now that Shafie is an opposition leader, any dream of seeing the bridge completed appears as good as gone.

“There’s no chance we will get the bridge unless there is a change in government,” Ghulam said. – October 22, 2017.