KOTA KINABALU: The federal and Sabah governments need to give more focus to help the poor, women, single mothers and children in Sabah overcome their poverty levels besides providing and improving basic infrastructure and amenities, said acting Sabah PKR Wanita chief Haniza Talha.
“It is sad to see the levels of poverty among our fellow Malaysians in Sabah, particularly the women and children,” she said after chairing the PKR Wanita meeting on Sunday.
Haniza, who is the PKR assemblywoman for Taman Medan, Selangor, is also the deputy Wanita chief of PKR. She led a women delegation to Sabah to better understand the poverty situation in Sabah and to visit flood victims in several areas that were flooded recently.
“The federal government needs to give priority to Sabahans or at least treat them as equal Malaysians. It is wrong of the federal government not to provide Sabahans with the same flood aid that was given to West Malaysians,” she said.
To help the poor and needy, she said the federal government needs to be fair and transparent in providing welfare aid. Welfare aid should not be given based on BN membership/support or denied to other deserving cases because of race, religion or opposition sympathizers or because they are Sabahans and not West Malaysians.
“Every Malaysian that deserves welfare aid should be given the aid regardless of affiliation,” Haniza stressed.
“It is acknowledged that while the government has taken steps and provided welfare aid, the poverty levels are still extremely high, especially in Sabah when the government is actively pursuing ‘high income’ status.
“The poverty levels in Sabah are at unacceptable levels. Last year, the Prime Minister’s Department’s own EPU Report stated that Sabah had 53.5% of the abject poor households and 39.3% in the poor household category in the nation while Sarawak accounted for 11.4% and 11.7% respectively,” said Haniza.
Both the federal and Sabah governments need to put more efforts to tackle poverty in Sabah and have more programs to assist the women, single mothers and children in Sabah and to be fair and transparent in their implementation to ensure every deserving Malaysian gets the necessary aid, she added.