PUTRAJAYA: Parti Solidariti Tanah Airku President Datuk Seri Dr Jeffrey G Kitingan (pic) called on the Federal Government to use Budget 2027 as the starting point to correct the long-standing development disparity between Malaya and the Borneo states of Sabah and Sarawak.
“For decades, Federal development allocations have remained heavily Malaya-centric, with approximately 85 per cent allocated to Malaya while Sabah and Sarawak together received only about 15 per cent annually,” said Jeffrey, in a statement.
He said this allocation formula does not reflect the vast geographical size, infrastructure needs, development backlog and economic potential of Sabah and Sarawak.
He said Sabah and Sarawak were persuaded to form the Federation of Malaysia in 1963 on the promise that both states would be developed to a level comparable with Malaya, a promise he said has failed to materialise, leaving Sabah an estimated 30 to 40 years behind Malaya in development.
He said the Federal Government cannot continue treating Sabah and Sarawak as merely one unit each against Malaya’s 11 states, an approach he said ignores the special constitutional position of the Borneo states and the circumstances under which the Federation was formed.
He noted that Sabah used to have five Residencies and about 30 districts and sub-districts, some of which are larger than entire states in Malaya, citing the Keningau constituency as bigger than the combined states of Penang, Malacca and Perlis.
He said Sabah remains the poorest state in Malaysia, with eight of the country’s 10 poorest districts located within its borders, and that Sabah’s gross domestic product per capita is less than half the national average, with rural poverty persisting and many communities still relying on untreated gravity-fed water.
He said these realities show the existing development allocation formula has failed to close the regional gap, and called for Sabah and Sarawak to receive a fairer and more equitable share of Federal development funds from Budget 2027 onwards, in line with their geographical size, population, development needs, infrastructure deficit and contribution to the national economy.
As one alternative, he proposed that Sabah’s constitutional entitlement of 40 per cent of the net revenue derived by the Federal Government from Sabah be calculated and paid from 2026 onwards, with the entitlement for the “lost years” from 1974 to 2021 negotiated separately between the Federal and Sabah governments.
He said Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim now has an opportunity to demonstrate the political will needed to make the payment of Sabah’s 40 percent constitutional entitlement a reality, which he said would not only fulfil a constitutional obligation but also give Sabah the resources to improve infrastructure, reduce poverty and grow its economy while contributing more to the national economy.
He said the immediate priority is to stop the continuing accumulation of unpaid entitlements and establish a transparent mechanism for calculating and paying Sabah’s 40 per cent entitlement going forward.
He said Budget 2027 should not repeat past allocation patterns and should instead mark the start of a fairer Federal development policy that treats Sabah and Sarawak as equal partners in the Federation, adding that correcting the regional imbalance is a matter of constitutional responsibility, fairness, and the future stability of Malaysia.
