Riches to rags: Umno has ruined Sabah

By Queville To

BEAUFORT: Former state finance minister Mohd Noor Mansoor has lashed out at Umno for impoverishing Sabah after it spread its wings to the state.
In a strongly worded speech in the pro-Barisan Nasional hinterlands, the former Berjaya Party leader accused the peninsula-based party of mismanaging a once rich state to one of the poorest in the country.

Speaking to a large gathering during the annual general meeting of six Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) committees, he warned that Umno was introducing communal politics into the state to ensure its grip through a divide and rule policy.

“Sabah was once one of the richest states in Malaysia when the state was ruled by political parties from Sabah such as Usno, Berjaya and Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS).

“Umno impoverished Sabah when it came to this state. Sabah is rich in resources such as oil and gas, (but) it became poor because of Umno,” he told SAPP members and their supporters from Bongawan, Membakut, Klias, Kuala Penyu, Lumadan and Sindumin, over the weekend.

Solution is political autonomy

Mohd Noor lamented that after 14 years of BN rule, problems such as the booming population of illegal immigrants, grabbing of native lands by plantations, shortage of power supply and poor infrastructure continued to plague the state.

He said this was despite of all the promises to resolve the problems and announcements of huge allocations for Sabah by the federal leadership, from time to time.

The solution, he told the gathering, is through ensuring political autonomy through a party that is from Sabah that does not have to kow-tow to leaders in the peninsula as Umno leaders in the state now have to.

Only then, he said, Kuala Lumpur would not interfere in local affairs and a Sabah-based party would be able to govern the state smoothly.