COMMENT: What a shame for Malaysia Day’s gift to Sabah
According to the answer given to me by the Deputy Minister of Environment And Water in parliament’s Special Chambers on Tuesday, the federal government had budgeted a mere RM500,000.00 for Sabah’s “kerja-kerja kecemasan di luar jangka (sebelum dan selepas banjir)”.
Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob, during his visit to Sabah yesterday in conjunction with Malaysia Day, announced that the federal government through the National Disaster Management Agency (NADMA) has allocated more than RM18.24 million to help Sabah manage counter measures against disaster.
So, what PM Ismail Sabri announced yesterday is an “extra” given to Sabah after the West Coast of Sabah had experienced a huge flood before Malaysia Day.
RM500,000.00 (0.5 million) vs RM18 million, now that’s a huge difference, over 36 times!
Out of this RM18million, RM16 million is meant for Covid 19 operations. It means that only less than RM2million is granted for flood relief. And out of this RM2million, the bulk (up to RM1.1million) is for the operations costs of 22 districts under the Disaster Management Committee.
I wonder, if there is no PM’s visit in conjunction with Malaysia Day celebration in Sabah, would we Sabahans be given this extra RM18 million?
On the other hand, netizen had also compared the allocation of this RM18 million given to Sabah with the RM78 million given to Kedah.
RM78 million vs RM18 million, this is another huge difference!
Kedah, such a so small state, and yet they are getting RM78 million. In comparison, Sabah has a much bigger land size and yet it is given only RM18 million!
Ismail Sabri said RM3 million (out of the RM78 million) will be allocated to repair houses and others damages faced incurred by victims of the natural disaster in Kedah. Kedah got RM3 million to repair houses and other damages! this item already higher than the non-Covid allocation (RM2 million) out of the RM18 million announced!
Is this the “fair” treatment by federal government to Sabah? Is this what we can only get with state government aligned with federal government?
To make things worse, this RM18million is only funding for flood relief, not even flood mitigation. If we get so little for flood relief, what else we can hope for flood mitigation? We may need billions to implement an effective flood mitigation system for the West Coast of Sabah!
Remember, without Ismail visit to Sabah, we only have RM500k (or RM0.5 million) allocated for kecemasan for the entire year of 2021. What a shame for Malaysia Day’s gift to Sabah by the federal government.
