MALAYSIA DAY Today's Malaysia Day celebrations ring hollow among the rural folk of Sabah and Sarawak, as they continue to trudge through a hard life that doesn't look much different from 47 years ago.
As the governments, political parties and NGOs commemorate the formation of Malaysia for the first time, many in East Malaysia will continue to do whatever they have been doing simply to survive before night descends on their rickety homes. They probably don't even realise that the big cities are "honouring" the contributions their home states have made in creating the country simply because there are no potable water or electricity supply or even proper roads to connect them to the rest of the world,
This is the reality facing at least 50 percent of those living in both Sabah and Sarawak, that collectively account for roughly six million people, stressed the president of Indigenous Network of Malaysia (JOAS), Adrian Lasimbang (far left)."The federal government has to do more than declare a public holiday and needs to put in a serious programme of work to develop both Sabah and Sarawak," he said when contacted while running a mini-hydroelectric project in the Bakun area and he added, saying, "All this while, Sabah and Sarawak have been like milking cows for the west (Malaysia)... I've done a lot of work in the rural areas, and even for basic things the government has failed to provide."
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