Muhyiddin: Better if Sabah is aligned with Federal Government

KOTA KINABALU: It would be better if the Sabah government is aligned with the Federal Government, says Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.

“Imagine if Sabah is one with us (federal government), it would be better, ” he said when announcing some of the previous funding allocated to Sabah and developments brought to the state at a gathering with civil servants here on Saturday (Aug 29).

Muhyiddin added that Sabah Chief Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal had been his friend for a long time and they had worked together before.

“I hope the message will reach the grassroots, the people out there, ” he said.

Speaking also about the claim by the Philippines on Sabah, Muhyiddin said he would not compromise on Sabah's sovereignty.

“We will never concede and will never bow to their claims. Sabah is an integral part of Malaysia and we will fight to the very end to defend Sabah and its borders from intruders and illegal immigrants, ” he said.

Earlier in his speech, he said Sabah was his second home and he wanted to foster a better relationship with the civil servants and people here.

He also urged department leaders to come up with suggestions and think outside the box to improve services, adding that bureaucracy must be scrapped and everyone would have to work as one to pull through these trying times.

“Our economic growth is at between -2% and 0.5%, and it is still weak, although things are starting to move slowly, ” he said.

Muhyiddin also acknowledged the sacrifices of frontliners from the start of the pandemic and the movement control order.

“The whole nation, too, did their part by listening to orders and staying home. This takes a high level of discipline, so thank you everyone, ” he said.

He said if there was one thing that Covid-19 had taught the government, it was that there were many things that needed to be improved and should have been in place a long time ago.

Giving an example, Muhyiddin said when things stopped and more industries such as education went digital, problems such as the lack of internet connectivity were highlighted.

“This is our fault, and we should learn from it, ” he said.

He also said although Malaysia was recognised as one of the best countries in the world to tackle Covid-19, the pandemic was still a problem and would continue to be so for a long time until a vaccine was found.

“Even if Malaysia is already free of the virus, but our neighbouring countries and the rest of the world are still fighting it, that would mean we are not out of the woods yet, ” Muhyiddin said.

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Sabah, Federal government, Muhyiddin Yassin, Prime Minister, Philippines, Covid-19, Civil service