Sabah CM: Onus on community devt leaders to inform followers on govt achievements

KOTA KINABALU (Jan 14): The onus falls upon community development leaders (PPMs) to explain government’s achievements to the people in their respective areas.

In pointing this out, Chief Minister Datuk Seri Panglima Hajiji Noor observed that many achievements recorded by the Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS)-led state government under his leadership had not been widely publicised, resulting in the public being unaware of many actual developments.

According to him, the failure to comprehensively disseminate government achievements has also caused issues frequently highlighted on social media, such as water and electricity supply problems as well as damaged roads, to appear more prominent, despite all efforts to address them being implemented by the GRS government.

“You (PPMs) can be regarded as the eyes and ears of the government.

“Your main task is to help explain government policies, programmes and successes to the people.

“So, help spread the government’s achievements, as there are many successes we have achieved for the people.

“Through the ‘Hala Tuju Sabah Maju Jaya’ (SMJ) development blueprint, we have uplifted Sabah’s economy, restoring it after Covid-19, increased revenue from RM4 billion to RM7 billion; our reserves have also risen to more than RM8.6 billion.

“This must be disseminated so that the people know about the government’s achievements.

“The same goes for investments. For example, at the Sipitang Oil and Gas Industrial Park
(SOGIP), the area is already fully occupied, and most recently an investor from Singapore invested RM31 billion there, with 6,000 to 7,000 job opportunities expected to be created,” he said this at the swearing-in of and signing of the pledge by the new PPMs, at Menara Kinabalu on Tuesday.

Stressing a point, Hajiji said if the GRS government was considered a failure, SOGIP and other industrial parks in Sabah might still be empty today due to the absence of investors.

On the SMJ 2.0, the Chief Minister said the state government would strengthen the implementation of the development roadmap, slated for launch at the end of this month.

“The implementation of the SMJ by the GRS government since 2021 has successfully laid a strong development foundation and also delivered benefits to the people across various sectors.”

Adding on, Hajiji said the government would continue its focus on human capital development, the well-being of the people, and improvements to basic infrastructure such as water supply and road networks through strategic planning under SMJ 2.0.

He added that issues related to the construction and maintenance of infrastructure under the responsibility of the federal government would continue to be raised with Putrajaya, ‘in the interest of the people of Sabah’.

Addressing the newly sworn-in PPMs, he expressed hope for them to play an active role in assisting the government convey accurate information to the people, and also effectively explain government’s programmes and policy achievements.

A total of 45 PPMs took their oath of office and signed their pledge letters.