PRESS STATEMENT BY PARTI SOLIDARITI TANAH AIRKU (STAR) INFORMATION CHIEF, MOHD. ANUAR TAN SRI GHANI GILONG
KOTA KINABALU: The Federal Government should start the development allocations in Budget 2027 based on the ratio 50:25:25 between Malaya and Sabah Sarawak.
For 2026, the development allocation for Sabah Sarawak was RM6.9 billion and RM6.0 billion respectively out of the total allocation of RM81 billion. This represented 8.5% and 7.4% of the total allocation meaning Malaya received a whopping RM68.1 billion or 84.1% of the total.
The development allocation for 2025 was RM6.7 billion and RM5.9 billion respectively out of a total RM86 billion development allocation representing only 7.8% and 6.8% or total 14.6%. This means Malaya received 85.4% or RM73.4 billion.
At the end of each financial year, the development allocations for Sabah and Sarawak are not fully utilised and they are withdrawn to be applied for the following year. This further reduces the impact of the development allocations.
Malaysia has a total land area of about 330,803 square kilometers with Malaya having 131,590 square kilometers, Sabah about 73,631 square kilometers, and Sarawak has 124,450 square kilometers. In terms of percentages, Malaya’s land area is about 39.8%, Sabah 22.3% and Sarawak 37.6%.
The Federal Territories of Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya and Labuan take up the balance area of 1,402 square kilometers or 0.3%.
From the disparity in allocations and the land sizes, it is not surprising that Sabah and Sarawak remains as the poorest in the nation.
In terms of GDP per capital for 2025, Sabah is RM31,125 with Sarawak at RM73,757 with the national average at RM59,167. Kuala Lumpur leads with RM144,898 the highest national GDP.
The state of underdevelopment in Sabah is massive. There are frequent power outages and disruptions in water supply. To add to the people’s misery, many rural areas in Sabah do not get treated water and the villagers rely on gravity-fed water from upstream in the hills.
Road conditions and repairs are no better with potholes all over the State. Road accidents caused by potholes result in many punctured tyres and broken rims. Such accidents have even resulted in deaths of the motorists.
The call by STAR President, Dr. Jeffrey Kitingan, for a discontinuance of the regional disparity in development allocations and replaced by a fair and equitable formula is both timely and necessary.
It should serve as a wake-up call and for the Federal Government to allocate the development allocations starting from Budget 2028 and start on an initial 50:25:25 ratio.
The people of Sabah and Sarawak awaits Budget 2027 and see whether the necessary fair and equitable development allocations to overcome the regional disparity are given to Sabah and Sarawak and whether the Federal Government is sincere in developing the Borneo States.
