Muhyiddin Asked Poor Sabahans To Stop Whining

Hantu Laut

Did he say it?

I hope the DPM was misquoted.

What is DPM Muhyiddin trying to do asking poor Sabahans to stop whining and regard themselves as luckier than the poor of India and China.Story here.

Cost of living is the basic measure of the level of poverty line.The poor in China, maybe, less poor than the poor in Malaysia.They may have enough food to eat.The poor in India, maybe, poorer than the poor in China.CIA Factbook put China's below poverty line at 2.8% and India at 25%.China seems better than Malaysia which has below poverty line of 5.5%.

The cost of living in Sabah is high compared to Peninsula Malaysia.Everything costs more here, from toothpicks to cars we have to pay more.Naturally, the quantum used to measure poverty level is higher in Sabah.

None or very few people died of starvation in China and India.Most abject poverty and malnourishment are in sub-Saharan African countries where either poverty or famine were the cause of malnourishment and eventual death.Even in Myanmar where the per capita income is one of the lowest in the world no one died of starvation.Food are cheap and affordable to the poor.If anyone died of starvation in Sabah it would be out of laziness or stupidity.We are also at the mercy of over-exploitation of our resources which have no spin-off effects to the economy.

Muhyiddin also made a rather embarrassing admission, that the BN leaders in Sabah are not doing their job and are responsible for the abject poverty in the state.By his own admission BN have neglected the welfare of Sabahans.

When Sabah leaders made demands for more development expenditure or took to task Federal leaders for their apathy and arrogance these leaders are viewed as anti Federal and would be sidelined.

After 48 years, Sabah should have better infrastructures than what we have now. We should by now have super highways linking all the major towns.

Instead of flying in the comfort of a jet plane and helicopter Muhyiddin should take a ride from Kota Kinabalu to Tawau and see for himself how neglected this state is.Our roads are in shambles due to lack of funds for maintenance.Federal leaders only come here more frequently (like now) when general elections is round the corner.

It is shameful that instead of coming here to find ways and means to resolve the situation of poor Sabahans the Deputy Prime Minister found it appropriate to past the buck for what clearly is the fault of the UMNO/BN government in Sabah. Muhyiddin is the second most powerful man in the country now and has been in the cabinet for donkey years.

As a long serving cabinet minister and now DPM it is a shame that Muhyiddin had no concept of the size of Sabah and its poor infrastructures.He said he had been ignorant until now that the Kinabatangan constituency is much bigger than Pahang, and was shocked to know that Tongod itself was bigger than Selangor.

Sabah is almost two-thirds the size of Peninsula Malaysia, the state did not get equitable distribution of development expenditure in spite of the fact that Sabah is a big contributor to federal revenue particularly oil.

I certainly will not pick him as our next prime minister.