Brief history of Sabah’s energy woes. Sabah owned SESB which, to our shame, was badly managed. Power failures, brown outs and shutdowns were a daily affair, Sandakan and Tawau suffered worst. Power theft was widespread too. These have created chaos and stunted Sabah’s economic development. Businesses, especially SMEs, suffered massively. Impossible for industries. Apart from mismanagement, SESB suffered from price increases in diesel which was then its main fuel by Petronas. To stamp the financial bleedings, Sabah sold SESB to TNB. Blame who? Sabahan political leaders for having allowed bad management and failure to secure an equitable supply of diesel at an affordable price from Petronas. After all, the petroleum was pumped from our territory. It is ours in the first place. Such was the sorry tales of Sabah’s weak economic leadership.
Admittedly, SESB under TNB has improved. However, its performance has not been entirely satisfactory, its failure to produce suffic
Hajiji’s speech last Saturday can be considered a political one in view of the audience. However, it is the first time that a major political leader has exhibited considerable statesmanship to bring Sabah forward. Clearly can be discerned are
[a] New political and economic directions for Sabah
[b] A new way of looking at Sabah’s problems and seeking innovative solutions.
[c] A new realignment of federal/state relationship.
[d] A Hajiji style of inclusiveness, unity personified in “we are Sabahans, we can talk, we can sort things out in Sabah,” – No longer “let’s seek KL’s approval”.
[e] Above all, Hajiji is being realistic/pragmatic in his endeavour to tackle Sabah’s decades old economic problems.
Below are some quotes from Hajiji to illustrate his new direction and hopes for Sabah