KOTA KINABALU: The Sabah Barisan Nasional 14th General Election Manifesto was launched with an assurance that its not just an “election exercise” here last night.
With the theme “Tanah Airku Maju”, Chief Minister Tan Sri Musa Aman said the manifesto, with its 20 thrusts, was borne out of the coalition’s sincerity and honesty in wanting to protect the people and further develop the state.
“Our goal is not only to develop the state but also to ensure progress for the people,” he said and asserted if given the mandate in the polls, the Sabah BN will move forward with its pledges as a united front.
In his speech during the launch of the manifesto before a partisan crowd made up of BN component leaders and members here last night, Musa who is also Sabah BN Chief, said the event was an important day for the state.
“Why I say important ? The manifesto is not just an election exercise and not just an election promise. As a responsible party, we do not formulate a manifesto based on popularity,” he said.
“The manifesto is not false promise, not false hope but a determination to carry out commitments that can be implemented. There are even some (commitments) that are already being implemented,” he said.
Musa said this was different compared to the manifesto that are made up of empty promises by opposing parties.
“When their leaders were in power for so long, as the Prime Minister, as senior Federal minister, what did they do for us in Sabah ?
“At the state level, there are parties with the ‘Sabah Ubah’ (Sabah Change) slogan, but they fail to prepare proper plans, their agenda for the people, apart from just wanting to be in power,” he said in an apparent reference to opposition front leader Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Parti Warisan Sabah president Datuk Seri Shafie Apdal.
“I wish to remind the people do not change for the sake of change. Change does not guarantee goodness. There are ‘changes’ that can cause downfall, because of change there are countries that turn into ashes.”
In his rousing address Musa allayed claims that Sabah was once rich and now poor, was once advanced and now lagging. “Any perception that Sabah is the poorest state in the country is a big lie.”
With political stability brought by the BN government, the state's annual revenue is now close to RM4 billion.
The State Gross Domestic Product too increased from RM59.5 billion in 2011 to RM73.8 billion in 2016, he said and pointed out Sabah is now fifth among the states in the country as far as economic position is concerned.
“We are not going to stop there. Our objective is to bring more progress to this ‘land below the wind’.”
Musa also said there was a time when Sabah depended heavily, 85 per cent, from timber revenue.
Under the BN administration, the state diversified its economic sources and revenues too have increased by many folds, he said adding now the dependency on the timber industry was at a mere 13 per cent.
“There are parties that claim Sabah have lost all its trees. They claim the BN government exploited the state’s forest treasures. These are all lies. Sabah has the biggest forest reserve in Malaysia, 53 percent of its total land mass,” he said.
Sabah is also close to achieving its target of setting aside 30 per cent of the total landmass as Totally Protected Areas apart from replanting nearly 700,000 hectares forested areas.
“All these are just a fraction of the long list of achievements and track record of the government. We are not saying we are perfect because there are many needs of the people that needs to be delivered.
But to accuse us of causing Sabah to regress is totally baseless. The record speaks for itself.”
Reported by Kristy Inus, Mohd Izham Unnip Abdullah and Avila Geraldine.