Kota Kinabalu: A Warisan Assemblyman questioned why Sabah only received RM23.9mil in taxes from a gold mine that reportedly generated over RM1.1bil in revenue, describing it as a stark example of how the State’s wealth fails to reach its people.
Sekong Assemblyman Alias Sani said the Bukit Mantri mine in Tawau produced over 2,300kg of gold since 2018, yet the bulk of profits went to private shareholders and not to Sabahans.
“If the government is serious about ‘Sabah Maju Jaya’ and putting people first, then cancel these licences and return the rights to the rakyat,” he said.
“Under the current policy, 70 of the earnings go to company shareholders, while Sabah only gets 5 through the state sales tax,” he said during the debate on the government’s policy speech.
“If this licence had been awarded to Yayasan Sabah or a State GLC, that 70 could’ve gone back to the rakyat,” he said.
Alias urged the government to stop issuing prospecting and mining licences to private companies, calling instead for all resource rights – including those for rare earth minerals and forest carbon projects – to be channelled through State entities.
He claimed a company, Aurelius Borneo Mining Sdn Bhd, was awarded a prospecting licence for 18,000 hectares in Bukit Andrassy, Tawau under Barisan Nasional and demanded public disclosure of its ownership and estimated mineral reserves.
“The people have a right to know who owns this company and how much gold, silver or rare earth elements lie beneath that land,” he said. He added that a policy shift toward public ownership of Sabah’s resource wealth could raise the state’s annual revenue to over RM7 billion.
“We always hear ‘Sabah kaya, rakyat miskin’ – this is why. It’s not that we lack resources. It is because we surrendered the profits to private hands,” he said.
Alias also hit out at the GRS-led State government over worsening water issues in Sekong, saying some schools had to carry their own water and there were cases where families couldn’t bathe their dead due to dry taps.
“People say the living suffer, the dead suffer, students suffer, businesses suffer. That’s the reality on the ground,” he said.
He noted that water disruptions in areas like Kampung Istimewa and Taman Mawar had become more frequent, while the state government’s long-term projections – promising to meet water needs 30 to 50 years from now – offered little comfort to those in crisis today.
Alias also raised concerns about exclusion of opposition reps from development discussions, saying Sekong had seen no new manufacturing investments, no gazetted coastal villages and no inclusion in local planning committees in five years.
“Despite RM6.5bil in investments last year, there has been zero economic growth in Sekong. No jobs, no new factories, no change,” he said, adding the state’s biodiversity strategy and promises of equitable development would mean nothing unless resource wealth was shared fairly.