Simple Sabahan wishlist

Optimistic: Leong wearing her wish for her home state on her T-shirt, which says ‘The Future is Sabah’. — Photo provided

It’s 2023 but the Bornean state still has problems with basic infrastructure.

ALONG with a new Prime Minister comes a new promise and perhaps new hope for Sabahans.On Thursday, when delivering a keynote address themed “Developing Malaysia Madani”* in Kuala Lumpur, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said his Unity Government will not marginalise minorities.

Of particular interest to me was the part where Anwar said Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof has been tasked with resolving issues with the people of Sabah and Sarawak.

“We must be aware that certain minority communities in our country feel that there is a pragmatic approach to marginalise or degrade them. The Unity Government will not allow this to happen,” he said.

As a fellow Sabahan, Sarah Leong, 31, welcomed that part too.

“They can start with speeding up the process of fixing and improving basic infrastructure and network connectivity in the interior and suburbs, which is long overdue,” Leong, who is from Keningau, Sabah, told me when we met last week in Kuala Lumpur where she works for a startup.

The graphic designer would also love to see the revival of the Borneo Literature Bureau (BLB) and more mainstream media coverage of Sabahan and Sarawakian culture, arts, books and films created by the people of the two Bornean states themselves.

“Our cultures and stories are more than just shiny and exotic accessories for festive holiday advertisements,” she said.

(BLB, which was set up in 1957 and shut down in 1977, published books on Sabah and Sarawak culture and folktales and also encouraged locals to write their stories in their own languages such as Iban, Bidayuh, Kayan, Kenyah, Kelabit and Kadazandusun.)

To get an idea of how Sabahans (and Malaysians from other states) feel about the state, go to the Face-book page Sabah Way Forward.

The activist group states: “Sabah is one of the richest states in Malay-sia and yet it is also the poorest. The paradox is mind-boggling. We want to start a conversation on how Sabahans can tap into our resources and talent to move forward towards a prosperous Sabah where basic infrastructure and high-speed Internet connections are a given.”

At the time of writing this, there were 79 posts, mostly featuring Sabahans, replying to two questions: “How do you see Sabah now?” and “What is the way forward for Sabah?” Most agree that Sabah is blessed but, to quote Shirley Roger Mosuyun from Penampang, “it has not lived up to its full potential”.

Shirley, a Sabah Way Forward board member, laments: “It feels that somehow Sabah is continually being sidelined/left behind and marginalised by the powers-that-be. How is it that in this day and age Sabahans still have constant water and electricity supply disruptions?”

The Keningau-born Leong explained why she had to leave Sabah in March 2020 (three days before the nationwide Covid-19-triggered movement control order was issued) for a job in KL: it pays double what she would earn as a mid-career graphic designer in Kota Kinabalu.

To interview for the job via video call, Leong had to go to the Keningau library since the Internet connection at her home in the village of Apin Apin is “really terrible”.

“Sometimes the WhatsApp messages I send [from KL] to my family [in Apin Apin] at night only get through at dawn,” she said.

“And don’t get me started on the water supply!”

On Christmas eve, there was an unscheduled water supply cut in the Klang Valley. The urban crowd, including me, complained loudly – being without water for a few days felt like being waterboarded. For many Sabahans, though, it is a way of life because piped water is a luxury for many there. Imagine, you can only use 10 litres of water for bathing (that’s about six 1.5-litre bottles or one pail of water). Many have to rely on rainwater as they have no piped water supply. Imagine when there is a drought.

It’s been 60 years since North Borneo (as Sabah was then called) formed Malaysia with Malaya, Sarawak and Singapore and yet there is no reliable water supply for many Sabahans.

Sabah also has an electricity supply problem, and I’m not even talking about deep in the interior. My home in Kampung Pogunon, Penampang, is only about 16km from state capital Kota Kinabalu. And yet in a week there will be at least several “earth days”, as Sabah humour describes blackouts.

The Prime Minister has announced that the Federal Government will hand back electricity regulatory powers to Sabah. In the hands of Sabahans, hopefully, the blackout problem will be solved.

For many Sabahans, their wishlist for the state is for simple things like that, a reliable electricity supply.

Leong’s wishes also include: “A reliable public transportation system. I don’t expect stuff like the LRT, just more comfortable buses that follow a schedule, are accessible to people with disabilities, and dedicated bus lanes would be more than enough,” she said.

She also wants better network connectivity – why is it that a Sabahan in a tech-related field can be employed by a KL company and get paid decently while working from the comfort of home but that can’t be done in Sabah, she asked.

If Leong was working locally, she pointed out, “The money earned could be used to buy locally-produced fresh vegetables from the inan [elderly women] at the tamu [market] and to enjoy delicious desserts made by that local home bakery run by a housewife so you can help her pay for her son’s tuition class.”

Leong, like most Sabahans, also wants basic infrastructure: “We are living in 2023. Shouldn’t basic infrastructure such as a reliable water supply be problem-free by now?

“And children are not supposed to gamble their lives to go to school [crossing rivers on makeshift rafts or using a zip line because there is no bridge], and villagers should not have to worry whenever it rains heavily that the only road will become muddy or collapse,” she said.

Don’t get me – or her – wrong: Sabah is not “poor”, it’s actually resource-rich. But the urban-rural divide is especially deep in this state. For instance, last week when I was in Kota Kinabalu, I was invited to lunch at Limau & Linen at Signal Hill. It’s a very “atas” (upmarket) venue with an atmosphere that reminded me of a chic restaurant I dined at in Singapore last month. And yet, 16km away in my home, there are regular blackouts.

Texting about Anwar’s speech, Sabah Way Forward board member Shirley said, “It looks like there is harapan [hope] with our new PM. But Sabah leaders also must do their part.”

I agreed.

I do know there is good news coming from Sabah. The state government does perform and deliver but doesn’t always know how to communicate its accomplishments. So stay tuned, Malaysia.

* Madani is an acronym for a policy under the Malaysia Unity Government that embraces six core values: keMampanan (sustainability), kesejAhteraan (prosperity), Daya cipta (innovation), hormAt (respect), keyakiNan (trust) and Ihsan (compassion).