Higher costs of living in Sabah cannot be ignored any longer.

13Friday

Press release of Joshua Y. C. Kong, of Kota Kinabalu. 30th April, 2009


Higher costs of living in Sabah cannot be ignored any longer.
THE higher prices of consumer goods in Sabah and Sarawak, compared with the peninsula, should not be conveniently attributed to the high shipping cost to east Malaysia in relation to the implementation of the cabotage shipping policy, said Malaysia Shipowners Association (Masa) chairman Nordin Mat Yusoff.(March 8, 2009)
The Federation of Sabah Manufacturers recently urged the Government to remove th Cabotage policy on account of its adverse effects on the prices of goods in Sabah.
I had been attending seminars and public forums since early 1980s and the issue of expensive shipping transportation cost had always cropped up at questions and answers sessions. Nobody then really knew the reasons until recently after almost three decades. The inevitable damages are now irrecoverable or irredeemable. So I would advocate for a trust fund for Sabah to be set up in the form of Sabah Indemnity Noble Trust or SAINT to be managed by an NGO to bring relief to the consumers in line with the noble intention of 1Malaysia .
So ship transportation costs to Sabah is one of the many factors that have given rise to our much higher prices of consumers goods in Sabah including those manufactured in Peninsular Malaysia. Of course there are many other known global factors in the food and fuel price upheaval (ffpu) that we cannot address and when it is within the nation, we should try our best to address the issues plaguing Sabah and Sarawak in the great divide of disparities.
Our global scenarios on food can be attributable to global diseases especially fatal bird flu or avian flu which had caused the culling of more than 160 billions of birds which could have cost the producers across Asia something like over a trillion dollars globally since 2003. So this can be a factor for the price increase of foods including chicken as chickens producers had to recoup those losses somehow to stay afloat. Now we are experiencing another swine flu side by side with the prevailing bird flu and both flus apart from other challenges would cost the consumers more to sustain their livelihood in difficult times of the global economic crisis of 2008.
Since 2006, ffpu had been here in Sabah on a rising trend and the impact is only going to be worst with waves over waves of turmoil near and far. We are familiar with such endless depressing scenarios but we have been unable to address them.
Sabah is now dependent on its imports from Peninsula Malaysia and the prices of such items had been on the rising trend for recent years despite Sabah had contributed to the economy of volumes for those manufacturers in the mainland. It is inevitable that the costs of production have been rising hence Sabah抯 consumers have to pay more for those imported goods including essential food items. Another factor we often hear is the road tolls (compliments of BN Government) that are also rising regularly and we are also paying such tolls indirectly when we buy imported goods. Our ffpu is also due to the failure of the Governments (Federal and State) to address the economic woes for various factors already embedded in the sucking system.
Another factor which is also contributing to the costs of our imported goods and our exports in the competitive aspect is the operation of the Sabah ports now operating under the public listed company Suria Capital Holdings Bhd (SCH) for a few years already. Sabah ports were previously a state Government concern, and now a privatised operation with financial figures available to the shareholders and stakeholders. Consumers at large are not aware of the financial aspects of SCH with the core business in ports business in Sabah. Meanwhile a company Bintulu Port Holding Bhd. (BPH) operating a single port in Sarawak showed a much more impressive results in gross revenue with substantial net profits in 2008 according to a press report on 29th April, 2009. The results of the single port in Sarawak and all the ports in Sabah may not be comparable but with those questions raised at the annual general meetings for the past decade on the SCH now operating the Sabah ports in recent years especially those questions and comments raised at the 26th AGM on 28th April, 2009 from the floor, it is timely that special attention be given by all concerned to address the performance of the Sabah Ports Sdn. Bhd relying on heavy capital expenditure and big external loans. Meanwhile the investing public perception of SCH running the Sabah Ports is evident from the performance in the Bursa Malaysia as the high and low of 2008 were RM3.40 and 85 cents and for 2009 so far is RM2.79 and 62.5 cents. While SCH suffered a decline of 13% in business in the first three months of 2009, BPH enjoyed a rise of about 7% in port business in 2008 as compared with 2007 (I do not have the figures for 2009 of BPH), the other comparatives are SCH had net assets per share of RM2.25 and earnings per share of 13.2 cents while BPH has net tangible asset of RM2.20 and basic earnings per share of 37.65 cents. BHP in a different corporate structure is listed with a high and low of RM6.750 and RM5.20 with a current price RM6.20 per share.
While we may be concerned with the high shipping costs as a result of Cabotage, we should also be concerned with the long tradition of various costs at the ports which have contributed to the higher prices of goods and services in Sabah. It is known that there are greviances of all sort with all the people involved with the ports and the players concerned so much so it is imperative that such issues be resolved, otherwise it is the end consumers who have to bear such costs of whatever nature. Hopefully, we do not reach that stage that we may lose our ports management to outsiders due to our own ignorance or complacency. We had seen how we have lost Sabah Electricity Board to outsiders in 1996 and yet today we still the same power problems with us.- another important factor of our costs and standard of living in Sabah.



Joshua Y. C. Kong of Kota Kinabalu.
Deputy President of Sabah Consumers Association.

MarmaLaDeOranGe

hmmm...i lived in sabah...br je masuk 5bulan tinggal sini...environment sgt la best tp kemudahan...hampessss...brg2 mmg mahal & sorry to say,when we compared price and the quality,mmg tak worth... especially bread...

and i feel very sad for sabahan, yg mmg tak penah gi peninsular...nmpknye mcm sabah ni jauh tertinggal...i felt like i'm back to my past years...maybe around 10-15years back, ways of life....

but the positive side is, quality udara mmg syiok...balik peninsular leh rase breath habuk...

animaniac

penah stay kat sabah sekejap....paling best raw seafood yang jual kat pasar tu..compare to semenanjung memang murah gila...tapi harga makanan yang dah dimasak standard KL la...

teenager...mmg boleh tahan gak ranggi nya, even tho stay area kg, they are exposed to pengaruh2 Hip Hop, RnB, Punk, Rock ..etc

MarmaLaDeOranGe

btol tu...raw mmg heaven giler...mcm2 siput lah ikan kaler2 ade...heheheeeee...

13Friday

PERSATUAN PENGUNA SABAH DAN W.P. LABUAN

SABAH CONSUMERS ASSOCIATION

Rumah No. 42, Lot 161, Jalan Pusat Pembangunan Masyarakat, Lrg Selunsung D, off Jln Mat Salleh, Tmn Sempelang, Sembulan, 88100 Kota Kinabalu.

Peti Surat No. 14812, 88855 Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia.

Telefon/Fax: 088 234616/ 247639 Email: ps_sindu@tm.net.my HP: 019-8117369

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

DYMM SPB Yang Di-Pertuan AGONG X111 VERY URGENT please

Istana Negara, Kuala Lumpur.                                                                     4th May, 2009

Datuk Seri Mohd Najib Tun Abdul Razak,

Prime Minister of Malaysia, Putrajaya, Malaysia

Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin,

Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia, Putrajaya, Malaysia.

Dear DYMM Tuanku & YAB Datuk Seri,

Greetings from Sabah

Memorandum - 1Malaysia and its impact for SABAH


Consumers Association of Sabah & Labuan FT wishes to congratulate the new Federal Cabinet under the sixth Prime Minister of His Majesty抯 Government.

CASH attaches with this letter five other earlier ones to the Government for prompt attention as the wishes of the consumers.

We are pleasantly surprised to note that the new Prime Minister has come out with the vision - "1Malaysia, People first, Performance now" to guide the nation to higher level of progress and meaningful nation building.


We are fully aware of a lot of things going on in Malaysia and this may not be so for Sabah in the context of proper development in the context of wider involvement of the people of Sabah.

The first thing that comes to mind in Sabah with 1Malaysia, it is the handling of the disparity of the Peninsula Malaysia and the States in Borneo.

CASH also had the vision of the Report Card on the performance of the State leaders and as an NGO in Sabah, we would like to be given the responsibilty to monitor the performance of the State leaders in Sabah with an appropriate financial allocation. The Report Card code-named CASHorder or CASH抯 Official Representatives Diligence Exit Report was a survey of the voters done just before the 12th General Elections..

For Sabah the Federal Government must address some fundamental issues namely (1) the Federal Constitution vis-a-vis the Malaysia Agreement (2) Prices stability of the essential items (3) The Sabah and Sarawak scenario with or without the special Federal Minister tasked with this portfolio plus some expected Royal Commissions of Inquiry.

CASH would like to appeal to the Government to transfer the consumers affairs to the Prime Minister department as there is an inherent conflict with the domestic trade.


CASH views 1Malaysia as a very important milestone for the nation especially for Sabah and it can only succeed if some fundamental changes including a revamped Federal Constitution are implemented promptly.

Apart from all those long outstanding issues raised in the five memorandums as attached, a lot more issues need to be addressed and suffice us to list a few major ones here below:-

1. Poverty including hardcore versions as resulted by neglect for decades.

2. Project IC and its impact on the exploded population.

3 Infrastructure development to be expedited with consumers input and participation.

4. Sabah抯 role in nation building to be more balanced and meaningful.

5. Towards economic uniformity nationally resolving corruption as stumbling block to harmony.

We trust this is in order for the good intention.


Yours faithfully,





President (Datuk Patrick Sindu - JP) Deputy President (Joshua Kong) Secretary General (James Bagah)


p/s :5 Memorandums of 20 pages to the Government and Prime Minister from 2007 to 2008.





We can help monitor the YBs, says Cash

Published on: Friday, May 08, 2009     http://www.dailyexpress.com.my/news.cfm?NewsID=64869         


Kota Kinabalu: The Consumers Association for Sabah and Labuan (Cash) has volunteered to be entrusted with monitoring the performance of State leaders in Sabah.

Its President Datuk Patrick Sindu said Cash also had the vision of the Report Card on the performance of State leaders.

"As an NGO in Sabah, we would like to be given the responsibility to monitor the performance of the leaders in Sabah with an appropriate financial allocation," he said in a statement here Wednesday.

The Report Card named CASHorder or Cash's Official Representatives Diligence Exit Report was a survey of voters done just before the 12th General Election, he said.

This was among the issues in five memorandums that were handed to the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak on Tuesday.

Patrick said Cash was pleasantly surprise to note that the new Prime Minister had come out with the vision of 1Malaysia, People's First, Performance Now in order to guide the nation to a higher level of progress and meaningful nation building.

"We are fully aware of a lot of things going on in Malaysia and this may not be so for Sabah in the context of proper development in terms of wider involvement of the people of Sabah," he said.

"The first thing that comes to mind in Sabah with 1Malaysia, it is the handling of the disparities between Peninsular Malaysia and Sabah," he said.

The Federal Government must also address fundamental issues like Federal Constitution vis-