MACC chief receives Sabah’s highest award

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KOTA KINABALU: Malaysian Anti-Corruption Agency (MACC) chief commissioner Tan Sri Azam Baki is among six recipients of the Seri Panglima Darjah Kinabalu (SPDK) award, Sabah’s highest honour, which was conferred in conjunction with the 69th birthday of Yang di-Pertua Negeri Tun Juhar Mahiruddin.

The others who were conferred the SPDK, which carries the title “Datuk Seri Panglima”, are Sabah Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Dr Joachim Gunsalam, former Kota Kinabalu mayor Datuk Iliyas Ibrahim, state Speaker Datuk Kadzim Yahya, Sime Darby director Datuk Seri Lim Haw Kuang and former Berjaya party leader Datuk Mohammad Noor Mansoor.

A total of 81 people were conferred the Panglima Gemilang Darjah Kinabalu (PGDK), which carries the title “Datuk”.

Recognition: (From left) Azam, Gunsalam and Kadzim are among the recipients of the Seri Panglima Darjah Kinabalu award.

Among them are Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor’s wife Datin Seri Juliah Salag, Deputy Finance Minister Yamani Hafez Musa, Sabah police commissioner Comm Datuk Idris Abdullah, the Army’s Fifth Infantry Commander in Sabah, Major Jeneral Abdul Rahman A Wahab, Eastern Sabah Security Command (Esscom) chief Deputy Comm Hamzah Ahmad, former Kota Kinabalu OCPD Senior Asst Comm M. Chandra and former Chinese consul-general in Sabah, Liang Caide.

The others are Assistant Minister Flovia Ng, Sebatik assemblyman Hassan A Ghani Pg Amir, nominated assemblyman Jaffari Waliam, Sabah immigration director Sitti Saleha Habib Yussof and state education director Tah Nia Jaman.

A total of 131 people were conferred the Ahli Setia Darjah Kinabalu (ASDK), 246 the Ahli Darjah Kinabalu (ADK), 319 the Bintang Setia Kinabalu, 393 the Bintang Kinabalu while 222 received Certificates of Honour.

Earlier in the morning, Juhar attended a special event in conjunction with his birthday at Padang Merdeka where various departments marched in his honour.

In his speech, Hajiji said efforts to intensify development and improve the people’s quality of life would be carried out by the Sabah government.

“More needs to be done, but as a responsible state government, it must continue to look after the people’s welfare by developing all sectors in the state.

“The government will focus on developing infrastructure and utilities in the rural areas; upgrading communication networks; (improving the) quality of education, health, human capital; providing affordable housing and poverty eradication,” he said in his speech at the investiture ceremony.

Hajiji said creating more job opportunities, improving security and reviving the economy affected by the Covid-19 pandemic would also be carried out.

He added that Sabah had spent more than RM2.39bil on development projects under the Second Rolling Plan of the 12th Malaysia Plan (12MP) as of Sept 4 this year.

This constitutes some 45% of the more than RM5.23bil allocated under the 12MP for a total of 1,118 approved development projects.