Sabah better off on its own?

A couple of days ago, I read a comment in reply to a Parliamentarian to the effect that Sabah would be better off had it been independent. In other words, the commenter felt that all that Sabah had achieved was not good enough.

To put in mildly, Sabah could have been better off.

I couldn't get what the gripe was all about, but I can only assume that some people in Sabah is going about what previous factions of Sabahans had done and failed in the past. Of course, these people are also those who get their information from sources like these.

These instigators often choose to see themselves as 'not part of Malaysia' choosing to use terms like, mainland Peninsular, and 'us sarawakians or sabahans'.

I recalled an attempt some years ago about a group of powerbrokers who attempted to revive talk about 'breaking away from Malaysia'. Here Desiderata (a PKR member) attempts to give credence to another PKR blogger Ronnie Klassen (Find out more about who the real Ronnie Klassen is soon enough).

Thankfully though, there are those who are very much 'Sabahans' who view Sabah as very much a part of Malaysia.

Sabahans like these:

Petronas’ projects will develop Sabah, says contractor association

KOTA KINABALU: The Sabah Oil and Gas Contractors Association (SOGCA) yesterday defended Petronas’ presence in Sabah, saying it will contribute significantly to the state’s development.
President Datuk Iskandar Malik said Petronas was in fact showing its sincerity by bringing the development of oil and gas to Sabah.

“Yes, we are very happy with Petronas’ role in Sabah and this is the very reason why we formed SOGCA because we believe Petronas is well managed. To us, Petronas belongs to every Malaysian and we should share opportunities given by the national oil corporation,” he said.

Iskandar was commenting on Petronas’ plan to develop long-term key projects to monetize and add value to Sabah’s petroleum resources which will result in greater revenue to the state.

With the discovery of oil and gas resources in offshore Sabah, Petronas is pushing ahead with upstream and downstream oil and gas projects involving a combined capital investment of RM45 billion.

Integral to Petronas’ plans is the Sabah-Sarawak Integrated Oil and Gas Project, which comprises the upstream development of offshore oil and gas fields and downstream development of the Sabah Oil and Gas Terminal and the Sabah-Sarawak Gas Pipeline.

Iskandar said SOGCA also welcomed Petronas’ plan to set up the RM4.6 billion mega fertilizer plant and the Sabah Ammonia and Urea Project SAMUR) in Sipitang.

Expected to be completed in 2015, SAMUR will become the largest single train granular urea facility in South East Asia with an capacity of 1.2 metric tonnes.

According to Petronas, the bulk of the plant’s output would be exported customers in Asia Pacific while the remaining volume would cater for local agricultural needs.

Located in the Sipitang Industrial Park, about 160 km from Kota Kinabalu, the construction of SAMUR is expected to commence in the second quarter of next year and is scheduled for commission in 2015.
“It (SAMUR) will definitely benefit Sabah. Since our state has huge potential in agriculture, the setting up of this project is indeed very timely.

“The spill over from SAMUR will be fantastic. The economic effect will be very significant as it will save a lot of money in terms of importing fertilisers. We believe it will benefit every body across the board,” he said.
Iskandar added that Petronas has invested a lot of money to develop the oil and gas industry in Sabah.

“It’s okay if they are successful but what if they fail?
“We also understand why Petronas doesn’t give big projects to local contractors, especially offshore projects, because this will involve many factors like expertise, banking, workers and so on.
“But, even now Petronas is already giving opportunities to local contractors and they also advised us to team up with established players,” he added.

On SOGCA, Iskandar said it was an umbrella body and membership was strictly for Sabahan contractors and companies who have acquired Petronas licences for various Petronas contracts.

“SOGCA’s main aim is to signify the strong desire by local Sabahans firms to participate strongly within the dynamic oil and gas industry in East Malaysia,” he said, adding that members were mostly players in the oil and gas industry who had worked previously with either Petronas or Shell. 

So,which Sabahan would you think actually worked for it? Sabahans like this or Sabahans like Ronnie Klassen?

Remember, come back here to find out about the real Ronnie Klassen.