The meeting of Sabahans in the Klang Valley will be held this Sunday (July 4, 2010) at 2 pm at the Petaling Jaya Community Library Hall (next to Assunta Hospital, Petaling Jaya) (see map) to discuss the problems and needs, grievances and frustrations of Sabahans particularly those stranded in the Klang Valley.

The idea of a meeting of Sabahans in Klang Valley is the upshot of recent visits by DAP MPs/SAs to various parts of Sabah in the past months including Kota Belud, Tuaran, Keningau, Tambunan, Sepanggar, Donggongon and Kampong Inobong in Penampang, Tawau, Merotai, Kalabakan, Pitas and Kota Marudu.

Wherever DAP MPs/SAs Hiew King Cheu (Kota Kinabalu), Teo Nie Ching (Serdang), Lim Lip Eng (Segambut), Jimmy Wong (DAP Sabah state Assemblymen for Sri Tanjong) and I went in Sabah, there was concern about the plight of Sabahans stranded in the Klang Valley, particularly following media reports early this year of homeless Sabahans who had to scavenge for food from garbage bins outside restaurants in the Klang Valley.

Sabahans back home were shocked that Sabah youths, who had gone to the national capital to seek greener pastures, were roaming the streets and relying on food served by NGOs and on leftovers in dustbins for an additional meal.

Sabahans back home were shocked that Sabah youths, who had gone to the national capital to seek greener pastures, were roaming the streets and relying on food served by NGOs and on leftovers in dustbins for an additional meal.

Sunday’s meeting of Sabahans in Klang Valley will seek to get first-hand information about the neglect of socio-economic rights and development as well as the frustrations of the people of Sabah.

The July 4 meeting of Sabahans in the Klang Valley however will also have a broader scope and agenda – to cover the whole spectrum of frustrations of Sabahans.

The New Economic Model with the main goal of transforming Malaysia into a high-income advanced nation with inclusiveness and sustainability aims to achieve a per capita GNP of US$17,700 (RM57,348) by 2020.

However, under the Sabah Development Economic Corridor Blueprint 2008-2025, the projected GDP per capita for Sabah in 2020 is only RM11,571 – which is more than five times less than the targeted per capita GNP for Malaysia under the NEM.

Coming on top of the scandal of the degradation and deterioration of Sabah from the richest state to the poorest state in the past five decades, it is most shocking and even outrageous that there is a five-fold difference in the targetted per capita income of Sabahans as compared to Malaysians in ten years’ time in 2020.

In Parliament recently, I had urged the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak to address five “present and urgent issues” to give meaning to the slogans of 1Malaysia and “inclusive growth” and end the marginalization of ordinary Sabahans who had been left out of national development and progress since the formation of Malaysia some five decades ago.

These five priority issues are:

1. Satisfactory resolution to the long-standing problem of illegal immigrants in Sabah, causing the Sabah population to multiply from some 400,000 during the formation of Malaysia in 1963 to over three million today. During his visit to Sabah last September, the Prime Minister had promised resolution of the illegal immigrant problem and this seems to have been completely forgotten.

2. Eradication of poverty in Sabah. Barisan Nasional had promised to eradicate poverty in 2000 but it is now 2010 and Sabah has the highest poverty rate in the country.

3. Massive development of basic infrastructure in Sabah to provide roads, piped water, electricity and broadband to Sabahans.

4. Raising the 5% oil royalty payment to Sabah government to 20%.

5. Re-opening of the inquiry into the “66” air-crash in Kota Kinabalu on June 6, 1976 which killed Sabah Chief Minister Tun Fuad Stephens and State Ministers, Datuk Salleh Sulong, Datuk Peter Mojuntin and Chong Thien Vun to address the many questions and doubts of Sabahans about the true cause of the Double Six tragedy 34 years ago.

These are among the issues which deserve revisiting at the meeting of Sabahans in the Klang Valley in Petaling Jaya on Sunday, July 4 2010, which is convened by DAP MP for Kota Kinabalu, Hiew King Cheu, assisted and co-ordinated by DAP MPs Teo Nie Ching (Serdang) and Lim Lip Eng (Segambut). Contacts and enquiries can also be made through the following:

• 03-79578022 / [email protected];

• 088-254987 /[email protected]

Leaders from Pakatan Rakyat, including PKR President Datuk Seri Dr. Wan Azizah Ismail as well as representatives from DAP and PAS will attend the meeting of Sabahans in the Klang Valley.