EVEN THE CONVERSION OF A VAN INTO A HEARSE CAR HAS TO BE APPROVED BY THE PUSPAKOM HEADQUARTERS IN PUTRAJAYA - YONG

KL urged to subsidise Sabah freight charges

KOTA KINABALU September 16, 2011: Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) has urged the federal government to subsidize the freight charges for goods shipped to Sabah, so as to keep the prices of goods in Sabah at par with that of Peninsular Malaysia.

Addressing guests and supporters at the Hari Raya open house hosted by its vice president, Dullie Hj Marie, SAPP president Datuk Yong Teck Lee said this is what the federal government should do without any further delay if it really cares for the wellbeing of Sabah people.

He contended that if the federal government could afford to give more than RM250 million per year to subsidise the four main highways in Peninsular Malaysia in order to keep the toll rates low, so as to lessen the financial burden of the people there, it should have no problem applying the same strategy to assist the people of Sabah.

He was also of the opinion that such mitigation was long overdue citing the fact that prices of goods in Sabah were costing more than Peninsular Malaysia ever since the state joined the Federation of Malaya to form Malaysia 48 years ago.

“Before Sabah joined to form the Federation of Malaysia, cargo ships from all over the world can come in to Sabah and Kota Kinabalu to load and unload goods freely. But this was no longer the case after the formation of Malaysia,” he lamented.

He attributed such an unfair-and-depressing situation to the imposition of the controversial Cabotage Policy since 1980.

As a result, today it costs the Sabah traders more than RM2,000 to bring in goods and merchandises in a 20-footer container. This thus contributed to higher cost of doing business in Sabah and inevitably contributing to a high cost of living, as the traders have no choice but to pass on the additional cost to the consumers.

“And to make things worse, the average take-home pay in Sabah is currently the lowest in the country,” he lamented.

Besides this, the former Chief Minister also took a swipe at the centralization of powers by the federal government which he said had caused great misery to the people of Sabah.

He cited for example, even the conversion of a van into a hearse car has to be approved by the Puspakom headquarters in Putrajaya.

This was found out recently when the party applied for such conversion to cater for the needs of the residents in Sepanggar.

Yong also blamed the monopoly of Bernas’ (Padiberas Nasional), the country’s sole rice importer, for hindering Sabah’s potential to become a major rice producer in the country, besides resulting in the people of Sabah consuming costlier rice.

This is due to the fact that except Bernas, no one else is allowed to import or export rice.

“If we could plant padi ourselves, not only we could achieve self sufficiency, we could even have surplus for export. When I was the Chief Minister and Tan Sri Pandikar Amin was the State Agriculture Minister, we had planned to undertake large-scale padi plantation to make sure that Sabah could become self sufficient within three to five years and even have surplus to export rice to other countries.

“Unfortunately, in today’s situation, even if we have surplus of rice supply, we have no right to export rice, as such is an exclusive right of Bernas. Even the state government is not allowed to import/export rice on its own.

“And on top of that, each and every family in Sabah is subsidizing Bernas as the rice sold in Sabah cost more than the rice sold in Peninsular Malaysia. I have highlighted this many times in the past, but until today Bernas just play dumb,” he said.