RM1.2 Million Grants Can’t Buy Autonomy — Sabah Needs Economic Sovereignty

                          Daniel John Jambun 

Borneo Herald 

11.53AM MYT, 28-10-2025

KOTA KINABALU : The Borneo Plight in Malaysia Foundation (BoPiMaFo) today said that Sabah Electricity Sdn Bhd’s (SESB) participation in the Federal Ministry of Entrepreneur and Cooperative Development’s (KUSKOP) Vendor Development Programme exposes a persistent truth — Sabah remains trapped under Putrajaya’s centralised economic control, not empowered by it.

While BoPiMaFo welcomes efforts to support local entrepreneurs, the Foundation stressed that RM1.2 million in federal grants cannot disguise the structural problem — Sabah’s economy continues to operate as a vendor state, dependent on approvals, funds, and direction from outside.

“Let’s be clear — this is not empowerment; it’s dependency dressed as progress,” said Daniel John Jambun, BoPiMaFo President. “Recognition of Sabah’s potential must translate into real economic control, not lip service or token grants.”

BoPiMaFo pointed out that Sabah contributes billions annually in energy and natural-resource revenues, yet receives only symbolic returns in the form of limited grants and temporary schemes. “RM1.2 million here and there cannot substitute for fiscal sovereignty,” Daniel added. “If that revenue remained under Sabah’s control, it could easily fund our own industrial and innovation programmes.”

The Foundation criticised the “Look East Policy Within the Nation” as a cosmetic rebranding that fails to address Borneo’s economic realities. Instead of chasing federal-driven slogans, BoPiMaFo urged the state to look to Borneo itself — Kalimantan, Brunei, and Nusantara — for genuine regional cooperation and industrial growth.

To achieve true empowerment, BoPiMaFo outlined several key steps:

1. A clear, time-bound roadmap for Sabah’s fiscal sovereignty — ensuring local retention and reinvestment of resource and energy revenues.

2. A Sabah-led, independent Vendor and Industrial Development Framework — free from opaque federal procurement systems.

3. A transparent audit of KUSKOP’s actual impact on Sabah’s job creation, vendor growth, and technology transfer.

4. A Sabah Economic Empowerment Authority — to design and implement development policies rooted in Borneo’s economic ecosystem, not Putrajaya’s politics.

“Sabah must stop being a subcontractor in its own land,” Daniel said. “Empowerment means ownership — of our value chains, our industries, and our future. Until Sabah gains real fiscal and regulatory sovereignty, these programmes will remain symbolic, not transformational.”

BoPiMaFo reaffirmed its commitment to pushing for full Sabah economic autonomy under the spirit of MA63 — where the state can finally determine its own economic destiny without conditional federal oversight.#~Borneo Herald™