A foreigner can see it. Why many Sabah political leaders fail to see it? I was shocked and at the same time, deeply embarrassed being asked by a friend from China. His question was why Sabah is so rich and so many poor Sabahans? It is a very simple but profound observation by a foreigner who has arrived to visit Sabah for only a short time. His question is simple but it has pierced the heart right through. I could not help asking myself, is Sabah’s poor economic management so blatantly obvious? Why? Why? Why? Why it has to be like this? Sabahans must rectify this “Rich Sabah, Poor Sabahans” dichotomy, this contradiction?
With justifiable pride, my Chinese friend told me that China has uplifted 800 million Chinese out of poverty in the last 40 years. Whereas poor Sabahans in the same period, has increased. Economic performance-wise, Sabah has sunk from No.2 state to No. 2 from the bottom in the same period of time in spite of ample land, resources like oil and gas a
Published on: Sunday, July 25, 2021
By: Datuk John Lo
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TAN Sri Harris, during his CM tenure, had a big vision for Sabah. Among the many development vehicles that he had formed, the most important were Sabah Bank and Sabah Development Bank.
How he managed to get approvals for these two financial institutions from the Federal Government was miraculous as no other state up to day have succeeded to get even 1 financial institution in the name of their states!
His objective for these two financial institutions, together with Sabah Credit Corporation and Borneo Housing was to finance and accelerate Sabah’s economic development. Sabah Bank, sadly is now history, having been absorbed into Singapore’s Alliance Bank.