Dewan Undangan Negeri Ke 13
Mesyuarat Ketiga
Penggal Ke 5
19 Okt 2012- 25 Okt 2012
Speech by:
YB Wong Sze Phin @ Jimmy ADUN N.57 Sri Tanjong
Tuan Speaker
Terima
kasih kerana memberi saya peluang untuk membahaskan Pembentangan Rang
Undang-undang Perbekalan (2013) yang disampaikan oleh Yang Amat
Berhormat Ketua Menteri pada 19 Oktober 2012.
Salam Bersih, Salam Ubah dan salam bersidang kepada semua Ahli Dewan Undangan Negeri Sabah. Ini kalilah.
Tuan Speaker
Saya akan membaca ucapan saya dalam Bahasa Inggeris.
Tuan Speaker,
Before
I begin my debate on the proposed State Budget 2013, I would like to
take the opportunity to congratulate our Chief Minister YAB Datuk Seri
Musa Aman. He is the best ever Chief Minister since BN took control of
the Sabah state government in 1994 for two reasons.
1. The Sabah
Development Corridor (SDC) has achieved its best performance by
receiving RM10 billion in the first half of this year, the highest
amount of private investments among all the states in Malaysia.
2.
Sabah has yet again earned praise from Auditor-General Tan Sri Ambrin
Buang for demonstrating sound financial management in 2011 in terms of
maintaining its record of efficient and prudent financial management
over the past few years.
But at the same time, I cannot help
but feel sorry for our CM. After doing such a good job for the state of
Sabah, his approval rating among the rakyat has droped from 60% to only
45%, according to the latest polls by Merdeka Center earlier this month.
This means that less than half of all Sabahans approve of his
performance despite the heavy drumming up of his many achievements in
the mainstream media.
CM Datuk Musa, if I was in your position, I
would immediately dissolve the state assembly and call for the state
elections to prove that a majority of Sabahans still support your
leadership. There is no need to wait for Prime Minister, Datuk Seri
Najib, to decide when to call the next general election. Our dear CM, I
hereby challenge you to dissolve the state assembly after the tabling of
this budget in order to prove your reputation is the best ever CM of
Sabah!
However, I don't think you dare accept my challenge. You
are still dreaming and placing false hopes on this newly tabled, so
called the best ever budget, to regain the support from the people. For
now, we bring the focus back on the budget which you tabled last Friday.
What is about BN state budget?
The
CM cum Minister of Finance in his budget speech said Sabah is grateful
to Federal Government for the allocation for Sabah. In fact, I feel
nothing to be grateful about, due to the very fact that 2013 Federal
Budget is one of the worst for Sabah in the last 10 years, receiving
only RM3 billion which is 6.5% out of total development expenditure,
whereas our population is 11.6% of this country’s population.
CM’s
logic that there is a lot of development or that Sabahans have
benefitted just because he has been and is going to spend large amount
of the state money or how quickly he can spend it! This is all worng!!!
Most of the money in previous budgets has produced little benefit for
the people of Sabah. Judging from the poor records of the BN Sabah
government, Pakatan is confident that the 2013 state budget will have
nothing to shout about.
......Bad management and corruption have continued to keep many Sabahan’s under the poverty line.
Sabah
is still the poorest state in Malaysia, hundreds of thousands of
Sabahans are working in poorly paid jobs in the Klang Valley, Johor and
Penang. Poverty can be seen everywhere within 5km from the centre of
Kota Kinabalu! Datuk CM’s own constituency has many poverty stricken
Sabahans! What have all the so called good budgets of Datuk Musa done
for his own constituents?
Datuk Musa has made too many boosts on
the comments from the Auditor General. Behind the façade of so called
good management of certain departments, he needs to be reminded of the
rampant corruption, deep rooted poverty, bad delivery service, high cost
of living and---- his inability to abolish the Cabotage Policy.
Auditor
General Report on Sabah concerning old folks home where residents at
these homes were sleeping with mosquitoes, bathing with cold water, not
fed beyond 5pm and made to eat food that they could not chew or were bad
for them. Is this the practice of a government who claim ----“Rakyat
didahulukan?”
Therefore, the few departments that have received praises from the Auditor General have done nothing for Sabahans.
--**-Failed Objectives and No Strategy-**
Sabah
is an under developed state. We need to improve our very outdated and
inadequate infrastructure. Some BN politicians have said, I won Sri
Tanjung with the help of the incompetent SESB, Jabatan Air, JKR and
Majlis Perbandaran Tawau. Yes, this is indeed true.
What has
government done in this regard? Of the 6 objectives of this and previous
budgets, the Sabah Bn government, 5 have failed to miserably:
1. Improve infrastructure – Sabah still has the worst;
2.
Acceleration of achievement of Halatuju – no result as the 2012/2013
Economic Report pointed out, the cumulative committed investment from
launch date of the SDC until end of June this year is RM112.0 billion
but the actual realised investment amount adds up to only RM12.0
billion, only 10.7% of committed investments in the SDC have been
realized. Where is the rest 90% of the committed investors?
3.
Development of valuable and high quality youth and human capital – Where
the well paid jobs in Sabah? Even pay jobs are not available. This is
why so many young Sabahans are working in the Klang Valley and Johor.
4.
Eradication of poverty and improve quality of life – Visit CM's
constituency to see plenty of poverty and only his cronies have a good
life!
5. Achieved balanced regional development. Except Kota
Kinabalu, there is hardly any development. Balanced development does not
exist at all!
Not only 5 objectives of this budget doomed to
fail. Datuk Musa has no strategy to accelerate economic development for
Sabahans, expedite the growth of higher income for Sabahans and innovate
the economy of Sabah.
Datuk CM has been too long as the
Minister of Finance – the style of his budget is the same every year.
There is absolutely no innovation. The worse is that there is no
diversification of sources of revenue.
The BN Sabah 2013 budget is boring and has nothing for Sabahans nathing to be happy about becouse......
Datuk speaker
Even
though Sabah received praise from the Auditor General, there is no
denying that Sabah’s state debt has increased significantly over the
past years and now stands at a worryingly high level. Even though state
revenue has increased by 236% from RM1.78b in 2005 to RM4.20b in 2010,
.....state debt has increased by an even higher rate from RM1b in 2005..
to... RM3.1 in 2010, an increase of 310%.
This prompted the following statement from the Malaysian Ratings Agency at the end of 2011:
‘Despite
Sabah’s favorable financial standing in 2010, the state’s public debt
was rising at a faster clip of 30.6% in 2010, owing to bond issuances
amounting to RM544 million as well as new loans granted by the federal
government totaling RM168.0 million during the year. As a result, public
debt stock as a percentage of total revenue remained elevated at 73.9%
in 2010 (2009: 77.9%).
However, the rapid rise in the debt level
may yield legitimate concerns on the state’s ability to repay its
liabilities, particularly when the amount of cash balances available in
smaller than the size of public debt.
As a result of this rapid
increase in debt, debt servicing charges has also increased
significantly. For example, debt serving charges amounted to RM92m in
2010 but was projected to increase to RM145m in 2012, an increase of
57.6% in just two years. As a basis for comparison, government revenue
was projected to increase by only 22.5% from RM3304m in 2010 to RM4048m
in 2012.
Furthermore, according to the 2011 Auditor General
Report, Sabah experienced the largest absolute fall in its Consolidated
Funds, from RM2.82b to RM2.66b, a fall of RM156.7m, among all the states
in Malaysia!
The fact that much of this debt and reduction of Consolidated Funds shows that:
(i) the state government was not prudent in using its budget surpluses for development expenditure;
(ii) the state government was not prudent in minimizing the costs of projects by open tender...
(iii) the federal government has not played its part in properly funding development projects in the state.
*****Development Benefits Cronies***
Yes,
there is GDP growth every year, but the average Sabahan continues to
suffer more and more due to cost of living increases. For example, the
people of Tawau suffers every day due to traffic jams in Jalan Apas, one
of the major routes into and out of the town but the government still
has no plans or allocations set aside to construct an outer ring road or
a coastal highway.
But a new investment in Sg Burung, Balung,
Sipadan Mangrove Resort, located 25km from the junction, has been
approved by the Public Private Partnership Unit or UKAS (Urussetia
Kerjasama Awam Swasta) and this involves an allocation of RM47 Million
to build a tar road for the purposes of benefitting a single resort!
Let
us pick another nearer example, the new 1km road to this assembly hall.
JKR has announced that the cost was RM14.9 million just for 1km
distance! can the minister of Infrastructure explain what make it so
expensive to construct this 1 km 2 hala rd which normally costs 2
million?
This highlights the true meaning of what the BN means
by Janji Ditepati … tetapi untuk kroni. In the 80’s the government
promise to build 4 mile (10 KM) of coastal highway in Tawau but until
now is still not fulfilled
And now the government promise to
build a coastal highway to Kudat. believve me.. I don’t think this
promise will be ever fulfilled ....even in 100 years of BN ruling.
Tuan speaker,
Concentration of power tends to corrupt
The
Ministry of Finance’s allocation has skyrocketed from RM737m in 2008 to
RM1.87b in next year, a 263% increase. The combined expenditure of the
Chief Minister’s Department and the Ministry of Finance is RM2.59b,
constituting 63.4% of the 2013 budget.
Well, thanks to position
as Huguan Siou, Deputy Chief Minister Tan Sri Pairin still holds the
second highest allocation through his portfolio as Minister of
Infrastructure Development with RM560.6m allocated in the 2013 budget.
Yet we are not seeing any significant improvement in terms of the
overall infrastructure in the state, most notable the road
infrastructure especially in the rural areas. The Merdeka Center poll
results show that the perception of poor infrastructure is the
prevailing point of view among a majority of Sabahans. I am confident
that if a approval ratings were to be taken for Tan Sri Pairin, it would
not be too different with that of his boss, CM Musa.
The over
concentration of the allocations in the hands of the two ministries
controlled by the Chief Minister is a reflection of the over
concentration of power in the hands of certain UMNO leaders in the state
government. The low approval ratings currently enjoyed by the CM is
testament that much of this money has not been spent in a way which has
benefitted the people of Sabah but instead has enriched a few cronies,
mostly those who are closely associated with CM .
Datuk CM
enough is enough. We want real development for our state and real
infrastructure improvement. We do not want to have development that only
benefits a select few and high allocations given for infrastructure
projects, many of which seldom see the light of day.
***Comparing the PR and BN budget***
Even
though we in the opposition do not have the same kind of political
financing that UMNO receives, of which RM40m of smuggled cash in Hong
Kong is just the tip of the iceberg, we are still able to contribute in
proposing an exciting alternative budget for the state.
Just to
remind the state representatives gathered here today, we in PR Sabah
have prepared an alternative budget that promotes financial transparency
and accountability, that decentralizes power from CM to the other
ministry and local government, that reallocates expenditure away from
the Ministry of Finance, that targets social assistance towards the
marginalized and which channels much of the increase in oil royalties to
infrastructure improvement as well as long term development projects
that will distribute wealth and opportunities much more equitably. This
is a clear demonstration that the resources of the state government can
be allocated equitably, efficiently, effectively and transparently
without jeopardizing the state’s financial standing.
As the
Pakatan Rakyat budget, which was announced on 17 October, has shown,
there is little chance that the BN’s budget can compare with ours, on
the simple basis that PR has pledged to increase the oil royalty
allocated to Sabah from the current 5% to 20%!
Dear ketuan
Mentri you should perhaps go and seek an appointment with PM Najib in
Putrajaya to review the oil royalty and copy PR Sabah’s policy proposals
in our budget since there is little chance the BN can come up with a
better one.
We will not stop the BN state government from
copying our proposals since this will benefit the people of Sabah. I
know it is not easy for CM Musa to admit that he needs to learn from us.
But at the very least he should consider my following recommendations.
And
if you do not want to become the next opposition leader in this Dewan,
please follow my advice and take these actions, most notably by asking
for more oil royalties from BN federal government in order to compete
with us in PR Sabah. If not, you will no doubt regret your lack of
actions taken.
****Loss of Compensation
We want to draw
attention to a failed promise of the BN government in seeking just
compensation from the Federal government for the loss of revenue from
revoking the import and excise duties on petroleum products.
This
was carried out in 2001 and as promised by the then CM, Datuk Osu
Sukam, the Sabah state government would seek RM250m compensation from
the Federal Government. But according to the budgets in the previous
years as well as the latest 2013 budget, the compensation paid by the
Federal government is only RM120m! This means that the Sabah state
government has effectively lost RM130m in revenue a year and total
RM1.56 billion over the past 12 years!
Not only is the Sabah
State government powerless in increasing the oil royalty, they cannot
even get the Federal government to pay us Sabahans the proper
compensation from lost revenue from the lifting of the excise and import
taxes for petroleum products. Perhaps CM proves me wrong by his
actions given his close relationship with Prime Minister Najib and his
wife, Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor.
Conclusion
Lastly, my
two cents advice for our CM is, please stop practicing corruption! We
Pakatan Rakyat confident to cut down 24% out of non fixed operational
expenditure once we are voted in government.
If Sabah BN
government has been free of corruption, like PR states of Penang and
Selangor, Sabah will have higher income, more job opportunities, and
zero poverty!
But now, our Chief Minister, Musa Aman, who has
been the focus of an international investigation involving allegations
of money laundering via Swiss bank accounts in Hong Kong and
Switzerland.
This matter has been raised in parliament and was
confirmed by the Minister of Prime Minister Department that
investigation is done which found that “no elements of corruption”
involved and all the RM40 million is the donation to Sabah UMNO.
As you can ask any ordinary man in the street, nobody will be
so stupid to believe it. I hereby urge the CM to clarify on this serious issue:
1. Why did the money brought in or smuggled in Hong Kong airport in Singapore Dollar?
2. Why can’t Michael Chia just TT the money to Sabah UMNO’s account?
3. How can you CM pretend not knowing Mr Michael if he is your donor?
Dear
CM, can you swear that the money received is not illegal and you tell
the honorable hall today. I know you do not dare to do so. But I am
sincere to help to clear your name, by signing Power of Attorney letter,
endorsing the criminal complaint by the Bruno Manser Fund (BMF) to
allow the Swiss government to investigate UBS AG Bank over the alleged
money-laundering on behalf of sabah chief minister.
Thank you
Datuk Speaker,
Sekali lagi saya mohon tidak sokong Rang Undang-undang Perbekalan (2013) kerana ia langsung tidak dapat membantu rakyat Sabah.
Sekian, terima kasih.
YB Wong Sze Phin @ Jimmy
ADUN N.57 Sri Tanjong
