No major budget cheer for Sabah, Sarawak

Waiting for vital direct-benefit goodies,Sabahans
and Sarawakians were again left behind in Prime
Minister Najib Tun Razak's budget 2013.

KOTA KINABALU: Instead of lifting the crippling 1980 cabotage policy, Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak today announced a price uniformity scheme to neutralise costs differences between consumer products in West and East Malaysia.

The catch however is that the scheme is only applicable in Kedai Rakyat 1Malaysia (KR1M) stores in Sabah, Sarawak  and Labuan.

Najib said 57 more stores will be set up throughout Sabah and Sarawak.

Sabah is the second largest state covering 73,997 sq km while Sarawak is sprawling comprising  124,450 km2.

Battle for Tambunan: Pairin unshakable?

Despite views that Joseph Pairin Kitingan
failed as a leader, it is unlikely that
the Kadazandusun community will vote
against him in the 13th general election.

TAMBUNAN: Opposition parties and their candidates are lining up to have another go at toppling Deputy Chief Minister Joseph Pairin Kitingan from a seat that he has held for over a generation.

Others have tried and failed but the times are changing and the opposition is gaining momentum mostly because of the growing perceptions of corruption in high places and the slow pace of development in the resource-rich state.

Now a veteran of Sabah’s murky politics, Pairin, can expect to be challenged by candidates from State Reform Party (STAR) and PKR, to name two, in the Tambunan state constituency in the coming 13th general election.

The Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) president can also expect challenges from several independents for the state seat which he has held for well over three decades since 1976 when he won the seat for Berjaya.

The septuagenarian politician who many say has become irrelevant in the Umno-led Barisan Nasional state government recently announced that he intended to defend his state and (Keningau) parliamentary seats, one more time.

Slighted by Anwar, SAPP out in the cold

By Luke Rintod of FMT

KOTA KINABALU: The Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) appears to have parted ways with Pakatan Rakyat after initially showing signs of building ties with the peninsula-based opposition coalition.

The fallout stems from PKR supremo Anwar Ibrahim informing SAPP president Yong Teck Lee that Pakatan was now bringing in Lajim Ukin and Wilfred Bumburing as his new trusted warlords in Sabah.

That decision was made known last month in a meeting room at a hotel here when Anwar met Yong and Jeffrey Kitingan, the Sabah chapter chairman of Sarawak-based State Reform Party (STAR).

Thousands gather to protest native boy’s death

The drug syabu, widely available in Lawas,
according to Sarawak PKR, has taken the
life of a 19-year-old native.

LAWAS: Several thousands of people arrived from all over Lawas, Limbang and Sabah yesterday to protest the murder of 19-year-old Edwin Singa Pelipus from the Lun Bawang community in Long Lopeng and called for justice to be done.

Edwin was found murdered last Friday evening.

According to the organisers of the protest, two other alleged cases of physical violence and stabbings – both resulted in grievous bodily harm and disability – have occurred in Lawas, from as far back as 2005.

All these incidences were allegedly linked to the syabu drug. Syabu is also known as methamphetamine.

Square Testicles

This is a joke that is supposed to bring you luck.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

An elderly woman walked into the Royal Bank of Scotland one morning with a purse full of money. She wanted to open a savings account and insisted on talking to the president of the Bank because, she said, she had a lot of money.

After many lengthy discussions (after all, the client is always right) an employee took the elderly woman to the president's office.