Liew: Why suddenly only now Sabah NRD is aware?

LIKAS:Assemblyman Datuk Liew Teck Chan on Monday questioned why only now the National Registration Department (NRD) is aware that there are still many people in Sabah without birth certificates even though the matter has existed for a very long time.

Debating the government policy speech at the State Legislative Assembly, he was referring to a statement by Deputy Home Minister Datuk Wira Abu Seman that there are "40,000 Malaysians" in Sabah without the birth certificate or other forms of valid identification documents.

Abu Seman, he said, had stated that in Semporna alone, there are about 4,000 people without identification documents.

According to him, the Federal Government has been requested prior to this to assist genuine Sabah locals to obtain birth certificates and identification documents especially those living in the interior and remote areas.

"So, I am of the opinion that the officers in the NRD should have conducted their duty with full responsibility according to the guideline and existing laws when issuing birth certificates for late registration,” he said.

In fact, he said Abu Seman stated that a mobile registration service is in the process of conducting visits to several districts in Sabah to help register those without birth certificate.

To this, Liew said Sabah NRD should employ more locals from Sabah to work for the department and empower them to vet the applications for identification documents.

SAPP: Why no action against contractors?

Mail Mathew

TENOM: Sabah Progressive Party, (SAPP) has questioned the government for not taking action against contractors who have failed to maintain village roads.

Its Youth vice chief, Rudy Sulaiman Mairi, said these contractors had come under criticism but that they continued to operate.

He said the government should be held responsible for not taking the matter seriously.

"I think this situation not only happens in the interior but also throughout the State," he said.

He pitied the people at the grassroots level because they had to put up with dilapidated roads.

"If the government is really concerned with the people's welfare, they should apply the People First, Performance Now slogan by reviewing the contractors' services and appointing new contractors capable of delivering," he said.

Rudy said this clearly shows that the privatisation of road maintenance introduced by the government does not benefit the people.

It was promised in 2008, for exampel, that the 5km Jalan Binsilon-Tumantalik, would be upgraded and sealed, he said.

However, he said until now the promise has yet to be fulfilled.

Daily Express

Monday, March 26, 2012

Page 4

Sembulan reflects badly on the reps

The “Perjalanan Kesedaran" initiated by the Mayor deserves a salute. Kg Sembulan is just in front of our nose.

If I am thee Wakil Rakyat for the area, I should be ashamed of myself.

The "dirty problems" of Kg Sembulan have been a living hell to the residents living there basically all their life. Its been brought up from one Mayor after another, and at last the present Mayor initiated the "prihatin" action hoping to solve the unending problem.

To add salt to the whole situation is the presence of PTIs (illegal immigrants) who created the problems from bad to worse. There are complaints of drugs and prostitution activities around the area apart from the daily dumping of rubbish.

The Mayor likened Kg Sembulan to a "patient under ICU in a hospital". The question is how long can a "patient" under ICU live with useless irresponsible "doctors" who don't even care about the affairs of their patients?

Political will needed to solve Kampung Sembulan rubbish problem-SAPP

KOTA KINABALU: The description given by mayor on the rubbish situation in Kampung Sembulan sound so helpless that the remedial measures offered dose not offer any hope to the residents in the area.

Over the past years, mayor after mayor visited the area, observed the same problems and offered their views and solutions unfortunately all proven to be only lip service and stunt.

All the mayors together with the state assemblyman of the constituency pointed fingers at the residents for the garbage problems.

SAPP Sembulan Selatan Branch chairman Kasim Busok stated this in a statement yesterday.

“As a resident of the area, I am very disappointed with the way the mayor and the three-term YB Datuk Edward liken the problem to be a patient under intensive care without slightest realization the responsibilities of the relevant authorities over the conditions of living, the broken bridges and the sosial problems in the area,” he said.

Kong quit for ‘insulting Sabahans on the Cabotage’

KOTA KINABALU: Luyang Assemblywoman, Melanie Chia said Transport Minister Datuk Seri Kong Cho Ha should resign is Transport Minister if he does not know his job. 

Chia also said the Minister should stop protecting the few companies privy in the national shipping industry at the expense of Sabahans.

Chia was responding to Kong's assertion on Saturday that Sabahans have a misconception and misperception about the country’s cabotage policy.

"The Minister obviously did not understand the issue raised repcatedly by the business communities in Sabah on the cabotage policy which was introduced in 1980.

"For him to say we do not understand the cabotage policy is really belittling Malaysians in Salah,” she said in a statement Monday.

Chia said businesses in Sabah have to incure higher costs due to the extra shipping costs due to the implementation of the policy.

"This policy has directly and indirectly resulted in the higher costs of goods for Malaysians in Sabah, she said, adding it is also a policy which trade associations, especially exporters in the State, put their fingers on for increasing the prices of, exports from Sabah to overseas countries rendering our goods not competitive,” she said. 

SAPP suggests fed govt subsidise public transportation in Sabah

By: MICHAEL TEH

KOTA KINABALU: The federal government should subsidise public transportation in Sabah, if it really cares for the people of the state, said Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP).

Its Information Chief Chong Pit Fah said this is in view of the fact that a majority of Sabahans are still poor and cannot even afford a motorcycle, let alone a car.

He contended that if the federal government can afford to subsidise road users in Peninsular Malaysia amounting to RM287 million for the four expressways namely the North-South Expressway, Sprint Ex-pressway, Sungai Besi Expressway and Pantai Baru Expressway, it should not have a problem subsidising public transportation in Sabah.

"The Barisan Nasional (BN) led federal government must not deny nor forget the fact that a bulk of the money which it used to subsidise the toll companies were contributed by the revenue generated from oil and gas in Sabah," he reminded. 

He said this while commenting on the recent announcement by Penampang Union, Transport Company (PUTC) to cease operation, citing that it could no longer afford to replace its existing fleet of buses that were more than 10 years old with new ones, as required by the relevant authorities. Besides PUTC, the Labuk Road Transport Company in Sandakan too is facing the same fate.

‘No more excuses on abandonend LD projects’

LAHAD DATU: The Government must make sure the abandoned housing project of Bandar Sri Gemilang at Jalan Tungku here is completed immediately as the house owners have started paying the monthly installments to the bank.

Making the call, Tungku Sabah Progressive Party SAPP chairman Datu Shuaib bin Dato Mutalib said he sympathised with the house owners for the difficulties as the unit is a government project developed by Syarikat Perumahan Negara (SPN).

He said Assistant Minister to the Chief Minister should not give any more excuses for the delay in completing the project, as the Government is financially capable as claimed by the Barisan Nasional (BN) government.

“The Government should not make promises that it cannot keep just to fish for votes. For instance, a project to build an airport here has been announced twice several months ago where by the first site was initially identified at Sandau Jalan Sandakan. Now the site has been moved to Silabukan.

"Another promise was to build 350 Hardcore Poor Household People (PPRT) housing units ar Sabah Baru here but only 13 units were completed without basic amenities.

"The project was launched in 2006 and until now there are no signs that the PPRT homes would be completed," he said in a statement.

Shuaib also questioned whether the Government is serious in keeping the promises to the people or arethey simply empty promises.

Daily Express

Friday, December 23, 2011

Page 9

Promises not kept, says SAPP

SILAM: It is natural for political leaders, especially those from the Barisan Nasional (BN), to make all sorts of promises to the people when elections are just round the corner.

Sabah Progressive party (SAPP) Silam Chief, Dato Shuaib Dato Mutalib, however, said many of these promises were never fulfilled and that it was not uncommon for people to cry out demanding for them.

Towards this end, he questioned why the 300 unifs of hardcore poor houses which were supposed to be built here at a cost of about RM50 million, had never materialised.

"What is known to the local community is that from 2006 to 2011 only 13 units have been built. The question s where have the rest of the promised houses gone to?" he asked.

'Where have the funds promised by Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak when he was still the Deputy Prime Minister gone to?"

Daily Express

Friday, Desember 16, 2011

Page 12

MP: Sabah projects done poorly

KOTA KINABALU: Tawau member of parliament Datuk Chua Soon Bui has expressed her disappointment with the substandard work done on many of the infrastructure development projects allocated to Sabah under the Ninth Malaysia Plan (9MP).

Chua when debating the Prime Minister's Department at committee stage in Parliament, pointed that the Auditor General's report showed that Sabah had managed to spend 94.4 per cent, or the equivalent of RM6.02 billion out of the total budget of RM6.3 billion under the 9MP for more than 34,485 projects.

Sadly, many of the infrastructure projects had poor finishing, were not according to specifications as well as had their fixtures such as doors and drainage pipes broken before they could be used, she lamented.

“All these failures or substandard developments do not benefit the people and waste public funds," the Sabah Progressive Party vice-president stressed.
 

She also said that some of the audited reports revealed that the RM83,839 agriculture tractor bought for Lahad Datu District Council since 2009 had never been used, the public toilets at Taman Aman 3 Lahad Datu which were built in August 2009 with an allocation of RM196,900 had their fixtures damaged and many wooden bridges repaired were not according to specifications in Semporna, thus endangering the public.

According to Chua, many projects under the Education Department on the building of teachers' quarters, building or repairs of classrooms, were of low standards and the fans installed were not functioning.

"The most alarming finding was that many local councils had failed to submit their accounts for audit," she stressed.

Chua also told the House that two marine boats, Kapal Jemalin M2B-Kapal Pemaliman in Sandakan and Kapal Tarek M47 in Kota Kinabalu under the port authority had been not used since 2008 and 2009 respectively.

Lawmakers raise issue of basic facilities in Sabah and Sarawak

KUALA LUMPUR: The issue of basic facilities in the rural areas of Sabah and Sarawak was one of the main issues raised during the debate on the Supply Bill 2012 for the Rural and Regional Development Ministry in parliament yesterday.

Datuk Seri Tiong King Sing (BN-Bintulu) and Datuk Eric Majimbun (Independent-Sepanggar) questioned the implementation of projects at the ministerial level as many of the facilities provided in both states still could not be used after so long.

"For example, in the case of electicty supply, the wiring and other installations have been done but these cannot be used.

It's the same with water supply; the pipes are there but there's no water. The ministry has not taken action until today," said Tiong during the debate at the committee stage.

The electicity supply issue was also raised by Datuk Ago Dagang (BN-Kanowit), questioning why some areas were still without street lighting when the lamp posts had been installed two years ago.

Rural and Regional Development Deputy Minister Datuk Joseph Entulu when winding up the debate, said eight to 11 big water treatment plants in Sarawak would be upgraded to overcome the low water pressure problem by 2013.

He said the water supply problem was due to the small plant capacities which delayed the projects for the rural areas.

On electricity supply, Entulu said the ministry was working with SESCO Berhad in the implementation of all projects in Sarawak, with monitoring carried out from time to time.

"All installation designs must have the approval of SESCO before construction can begin, If the specifications are not adhered to, then improvements must first be made," he said.

As for Sabah, Entulu said each street lighting installed would be handed over to Sabah Electricity Sdn Bhd (SESB) for operation and maintenance.

"If there's any Problem, residents are encouraged to call 15454 and SESB will act."

The Borneo Post

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

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