Government report card a sea of red – Joseph Sim

The federal government’s report card for Sabah and Sarawak is out – and it is not looking pretty.

Malaysia Day, on September 16, commemorates the peninsula, Singapore, Sabah and Sarawak coming together to form what we know as Malaysia today. However, since then, this partnership has increasingly grown unhappier.

Singapore left the federation in 1965 over disagreements on fundamental issues, while separatist movements like “Sarawak for Sarawakians” have been recently gaining popularity there.

Furthermore, Sabah and Sarawak are starting to doubt the sincerity of the federal government after looking at the disparity in development between Sabah and Sarawak and the peninsula, resulting in rising tensions between the two regions.

But for now, let us put aside our personal perceptions, prejudices and agendas, and approach this issue in an objective manner – by evaluating the available numbers.

From 2011 to 2015, the federal government used the 10th Malaysia Plan as a blueprint for governance, in which many targets and forecasts were set for Sabah and Sarawak. With the 11th Malaysia Plan in May 2015, we can now evaluate whether the federal government achieved what it had set out to do in that five-year period using statistics obtained from the Malaysia Plans.

Poverty

Sabah and Sarawak are generally regarded as one of poorer and underdeveloped regions in Malaysia. Here, one of the key issues is poverty among the native communities.

According to the 10th Malaysia Plan, the incidence of poverty among natives in Sabah and Sarawak stood at 6.4% and 22.8% respectively in 2009. A target was set to reduce this to 3.0% and 12.0% respectively by the end of the plan period.

However, there was no mention of this statistic in the 11MP.

Based on figures produced by Khazanah Research Institute, the incidence of poverty among native communities now stands at 7.3% in Sarawak and 20.2% in Sabah. Not only did the federal government not achieve its targets, the situation has worsened in Sarawak.

One might then question the reason behind the lack of progress in the standard of living of Sabah and Sarawak folk, especially among natives.

To answer that, one must examine whether the poor – who largely live in rural areas – have been giving the adequate conditions and access to basic infrastructure needed to succeed.

Rural infrastructure

Chart 1 shows the targets the federal government has set to improve the rural infrastructure for Sabah and Sarawak in the 10MP, compared with the actual results achieved (as published in the 11MP).

Here, we can see that the federal government has failed to achieve all six targets for rural infrastructure in Sabah and Sarawak. To be fair, the rural infrastructure for these two states did show improvements during the plan period.

However, it is unacceptable that in 2015, about one in five homes in rural areas of Sabah and Sarawak does not have access to water. The rural water supply coverage target fell short during this period by an average of 15.35% and only 1,320km of the target 2,819km of rural roads in Sarawak have been built.

If Malaysia really wants to achieve “developed nation” status by 2020, it cannot afford such complacency.

Sabah and Sarawak economy

In looking at the economy of Sabah and Sarawak to evaluate whether the federal government has achieved its targets, not just for the rural population, but for the urban population as well, Charts 2 and 3 contrast the annual growth rate forecast for each industry by the federal government in the 10MP against the actual results published in the 11MP for both Sabah and Sarawak.

For Sarawak, the federal government has done quite well in meeting or surpassing its forecast in three out of five industries, with the construction sectors doing particularly well.

However, the same cannot be said for overall Sabah, where all other sectors did not meet projected targets. While it is understandable that these numbers are hard to predict with accuracy, consistent underperformance in the case of Sabah is entirely unacceptable and indicates that there are fundamental issues with the federal government’s approach.

To get a clearer picture of the overall situation, Chart 4 observes the GDP growth rate of Sarawak and Sabah during the 10MP.

Here, GDP growth rates for Sabah and Sarawak were not as high as forecast. Despite Sarawak doing well in a few industries, it fell 2.2% short of its forecast, mainly due to underperformance in its manufacturing and services sectors. Sabah was worse, failing to even reach half of the federal government’s forecast.

To put these figures in perspective, Sabah and Sarawak’s performance was in the bottom four among all states in Malaysia, with Sabah tying with Perlis for the worst performing state on this measure. This signifies major negligence on the federal government’s part and highlights the need for serious accountability measures.

In looking at the unrealised targets left over from the 10MP, the federal government has brought home a report card filled with red marks which would have gotten a child grounded for a month at best, disowned by their family at worst.

Any ounce of credibility that the federal government previously possessed is quickly disappearing. Despite some improvements in certain areas, the federal government has failed Sabah and Sarawak in almost every area in the last five years beyond any questionable doubt.

The key problem with the federal government is not its vision and planning, but rather its capability to implement what has been proposed. There has been too much talk on government strategies (strategic thrusts, game changers, big ideas, national key result areas) and too little on actually achieving targets and forecasts.

Peninsula folk also need to join the fight and realise that problems in Sabah and Sarawak are ultimately problems affecting Malaysia as a whole.

As a country, we need to stand up and speak out for each other to keep the government accountable in all areas. The federal government has to wake up and start walking the talk if they desire to retain any hope in achieving Vision 2020.

After all, we are 1 Malaysia. – October 1, 2015.  

* Note: 2015 statistics quoted from the 11MP are estimates for the year.

* Joseph Sim is reading economics at the University of Warwick.

* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insider.