DATUK Abdul Ghafur Salleh (BN-Kalabakan) said yesterday the government was leaving Sabah literally in the dark.

He said power disruption was a perennial problem in the state.

"In the peninsula, we talk about energy conservation. However, in Sabah there is not enough power," he said.

Last week, the collapse of a transmission tower caused a major outage that affected 90 per cent of the users in the state.

Abdul Ghafur said there must be more "constructive reasons" for the power shortages in Sabah other than cable and transformer thefts, adding that swift action would have been taken if major power outages happened in the peninsular.
"I wonder why there is always preferential treatment and double standards," he said.

Energy, Water and Communications Minister Datuk Shaziman Abu Mansor expressed regret over the collapse of the transmission tower.

He said the electrical transmissions and power supply in Sabah were not fully managed by Tenaga Nasional Berhad.

"That is why there is a difference in the power supply between Sabah and the rest of the peninsula," he said.

Shaziman said he was aware of the problems faced by Sabah and was now asking the government to approve "fast track" generation plant projects that use gas in two locations in the state.

"We will also be asking the finance ministry for additional allocations to solve power outages in the state."