In the recent weeks, Sabahan politicians are hogging the limelight. News and rumours of their defections are slowly becoming more clear and loud. Politicians such as Yong Teck Lee, Ghapur Salleh, Shafie Apdal, and lately Pairin Kitingan have joined the chorus of Sabah being neglected.
Yong has issued an ultimatum to the BN leadership in Peninsula, ignore Sabah's demands at your own peril.
I flew into Kota Kinabalu today and will speak at a corporate event on post-election Malaysia. It has one of the most beautiful beachlines of all states in Malaysia. Sabah is a geographical beauty, a unique land where one can enjoy its outstanding and jaw dropping landscape.
However, as our plane descended upon the Kota Kinabalu airport, my eyes were fixed on row of squatter houses built along a stream. The sight bellies Sabah's socio-economic reality. It is a poor state with rich resources.
Why so?
It is the effect of decades of neglect by Federal government. It is time for the Abdullah administration to decentralise power and allocate more resources to the states to manage their own economy more effectively.
Regional disparity is too obvious and I am not surprised if the chorus becomes a real discontent and rebellion in Sabah.
It is time for Malaysia to move beyond its own parochialism and outdated political model.
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