Pakatan dangles RM4bil carrot to Sabahans

Sabahans will stand to gain handsomely if Pakatan Rakyat administers the country and fulfils its promise to channel to the state 20 percent in oil royalty, says DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng.

Sabah is projected to receive RM1 billion in oil royalties next year, but this figure can increase four-fold if Pakatan is allowed to rule, Lim said at a DAP-organised dinner in Kota Kinabalu last night.

At the present five percent oil royalty rate afforded by Putrajaya, he said, Sabah had only received RM8.2 billion in oil royalties over the years.

"Let us change our destiny by voting for the Pakatan government's increase of oil royalty to 20 percent," Lim told the 100-table fund-raising dinner at the Grand Port View Restaurant, at which about RM6,000 was collected.

The 20 percent oil royalty promise is the centrepiece of Pakatan's campaign in resource-rich Sabah, which incidentally is the most impoverished state in Malaysia.

Proven to handle funds better
Pakatan's alternative budget for Sabah was designed around the 20 percent oil royalty promise, which provides a preview of how it can be spent to increase disposable incomes and improve the socio-economic status of the people.

Lim's in his speech also said Pakatan was capable of handling state funds, as acknowledged by previous reports from the Auditor-General's Department.

Lim, who is also the Penang chief minister, said his state had recorded a 47 percent increase in revenue in 2011 while Sabah's increase was only four percent.

Similarly, Lim said, Penang, despite being Malaysia's second smallest state, recorded a 312 percent increase in its budget surplus last year, while Sabah Chief Minister Musa Aman tabled yet another deficit budget.

"If Penang, despite being the second smallest state in Malaysia, can record a surplus of RM138 million that is so much higher than Sabah's RM4 million, clearly Pakatan can manage the economy better," he said.