Sabah BN government promises even more promises to eradicate poverty
Now they use the word poverty, no more hard core poverty, but their
actions of giving zincs indicate that they are only eradicating hard
core poverty. RM2 million for the whole of sabah, also indicate that
it is meant only for hard core poverty.
Allowance of only RM 300 per month is also not poverty eradication,
only hard core poverty eradication.
Poverty is only eradicated if income is above RM1200 per month.
When salaries of BN village heads and other government servants are
still below this level, with difficulties in employing, let alone
paying workers with wages below this poverty level, do you think that
this effort is really sincere?
What the SAbah BN govenrment is more interested is to give away more
and more Sabahan resources for free, such as the gas from Sabah to be
piped for free to Bintulu and later on to Malaya, while Sabah is
forced to borrow even more money to build Coal fired plants at a cost
of 2 Billion RM, while Bakun dam that is much nearer are to be more
economically piped to Malaya at a cost of RM7 billion.
What have actually Sabah got apart from these promises? Any real
money? When even Sukau, the poorest among the poorest in the world,
cannot even get a single allocation, as stated by its BN
representative, do you think all these promises will materialise???
Even the Malaysian agreement, signed internationally had not been
realised, promises of more money for Sabah will not even be
entertained. I think you are dreaming. Yes, they will give you zincs
and water tanks worth RM2 million, after getting RM2 billion from
Sabah.
SABAH DISPUTES 'POOREST STATE' TAG PDF Print E-mail
Written by Admin
Tuesday, 16 November 2010 13:28
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By: JOE FERNANDEZ
THE State Economic Planning Unit (EPU) in the Chief Minister's
Department in Kota Kinabalu has a different angle from the World Bank
(WB) on the incidence of poverty in the state.
In the Malaysian Economic Monitor (MEM) report released last
Wednesday, the World Bank noted that Sabah, with 10 percent of the
country's population, had 40 percent of the poor.
Disputing this in a press statement yesterday, the EPU said Sabah is
not the poorest state in Malaysia, although it did not identify the
state concerned.
Sarawak has long been considered the poorest state after Sabah,
followed by Kelantan and Terengganu.
The EPU said that "certain sections of the local media and groups with
vested interests had taken it upon themselves to sensationalise (the
incidence of poverty in Sabah) with wanton disregard for the facts and
truth".
"It's a gross misinterpretation of the MEM report. The report does
mention a significant reduction in poverty in Sabah from 1976-2004,"
said EPU director Ismail Abdullah in elaborating on the statement.
Citing WB figures in the MEM, he stressed that the incidence of
poverty in Sabah has dropped from more than 50 percent in 1976 to 24.2
percent in 2004.
"The WB has described this as an excellent achievement although there
still exist pockets of poverty in Sabah as in Sarawak and other places
in Malaysia," he said.
The incidence of poverty in Sabah, Ismail said, further fell to 16.4
percent in 2007 and this fact was captured by the Household Income
Survey (HIS) carried out by the Statistics Department. It would have
fallen further if not for the financial crisis of 2008/2009.
He blamed the rise in cost of food, fuel and transportation for
setbacks to the hardcore poverty eradication scheme.
Ismail did not differentiate between poverty and hardcore poverty but
pledged that "the state government is targeting to eliminate hardcore
poverty totally by the end of this year".
The mean monthly gross income of Sabah households, according to the
HIS, had increased from RM 2,593 in 2004 to RM 3,102 in 2009, "an
average growth of 5.3 percent which is better than many states in
Malaysia".
Ismail did not comment on the MEM report finding that "people are paid
poor salaries against the job they are doing. Those who are working
may be poor not because they are not working but working in low-paying
jobs".
"HIS indicates that the number of Sabah households enjoying an income
of between RM1,000-1,999 had increased substantially by 2009," he
said.
NKRA goals
Ismail agreed that the MEM was put together by the WB after a working
visit to Sabah in September. He also agreed that the MEM was issued
after the tacit approval and cooperation of the state government in
line with the partnership programme between the WB and the Malaysian
government.
"The partnership saw the WB providing policy analysis and advice as
well as information on member-countries' experience, which included
research and data collection," said Ismail.
Apparently, the WB team also had discussions and consultations with a
cross-section of individuals and groups, both from the private and
public sectors, academicians and NGOs.
The WB team assessed the state's poverty eradication programmes such
as projects under the Mini Estate Sejahtera and the micro credit
scheme under the Yayasan Usaha Maju.
The latter is a state government agency providing small loans to poor
and low-income groups, especially women to allow them to do small-
scale businesses and economic activities that can provide sustainable
incomes for them and their families.
Ismail said that Sabah would step up its poverty eradication efforts,
including agropolitan projects in pockets of poverty like Banggi,
Pitas, Tongod, Kota Belud, Tenom, Sook and Nabawan.
Under the National Key Results Areas (NKRA), the state government will
embark on the development of the basic rural infrastructure in Sabah.
This calls for the construction of 1,020 km of rural roads, and the
provision of electricity and water supplies to 95 percent and 90
percent of the rural folk respectively.
Over 12,000 poor households in the state will get government
assistance in the repair of their existing houses and construction of
new ones.
The NKRA target for Low Income Households, said Ismail, seeks to raise
the income level of the bottom 40 percent of households in the state
through programmes in agriculture, business, jobs and training.
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