PAN BORNEO HIGHWAY PROJECT CAUSES FLOODS: SENATOR JOHN AMBROSE (News from Sabah)

Senator Datuk John Ambrose present food bags to families affected by Covid19 Lockdown or MCO,  while District Officer Henry Idol of Penampang assisted.

 PENAMPANG- 18 JULY 2021

Senator Datuk John Ambrose claimed since the Pan Borneo project was launched, many houses are affected by floods due the drains being too small, for example Kg Maang to Siga roundabout. He said this after presenting food bags due Covid19 Movement Control Order, at Dewan Gawir Madsiang here.

He will discuss with the Drainage and Irrigation Department JPT, to enlarge all the Parit Juta including one near the Police Station which is yet to be completed, and will also meet with the new lady JKR District Engineer for Penampang.

Meanwhile Pan Borneo project still have plenty of land compensation yet to be paid and this may have caused the delay because they cannot go through houses that are not given compensations yet, he said. " I would also look into enlarging the Moyog River via deepening, widening and straightening", he said.

Regarding the Kibabaig road which is always flooded during rain, John said he is not sure why the drainage project was not completed and 75% of the allocation had been released. He will get help from Datuk Bung, the Minister of Works to help release the rest fo the funds.

John also said he is against Kaiduan Dam and will make an appointment to meet Datuk Bung who had promised to build more reservoir in all districts. "He has to listen to the voice of the people as we have 10 thousand who voted for us here. Just because we did not win any seat does not mean we dont listen to the voice of Penampang", he said.

He said just because he disagree with the dam does not mean he is against the GRS government.

"There should be a complete study first, solve the non-revenue water NRW, build more small reservoirs and look into the advice of Dr Felix Tongkul who is very good in environment" he said.

The minister in charge of JKR must look into all aspect, not just ask engineers who don't know anything about environment, he said.

"We must look for people who has knowledge on how to preserve the environment and natural resources. Once a dam is built, the natural beauty of the river will be destroyed. I have been to Kaiduan twice and the beauty of the river can be tapped for tourism", he said adding there are many ways to get and save water.

Regarding the stalled Donggongon Roof Project,  John said it was approved during the previous Warisan government using the Council's fund. He cannot say much as he did not approved it apart from knowing it cost about 2 million.

"In my opinion, It should be continued as it is good for the people. I heard the sub-contractor is going to continue the job, otherwise it will become a breeding ground for mosquitoes, adding more woes during this Covid period" he said.

A total of 16,716 recipients of the food bag aids were identified who are badly affected by the MCO including those in quarantine and they will be distributed through all available government channels until 26 February. "Only a representative of 20 people were handed their bags this morning" John concluded.

Present in the event were District Officer Henry Idol and newly appointed Community Development Leader Joe Suleiman.

 

 

RELEVANT VIDEO: THIS is from my own youtube channel which is owned by google

 

 

EX- VILLAGE CHIEF QUESTIONS DELAYS IN VILLAGE APPOINTMENTS

 WED 13 Jan 2021

PENAMPANG.  A former village chief of Kg Terawi here questioned the new government delays in getting work done. Rollis Mitol said even grass at road shoulders leading to his village are so tall it blocks motorist view as they join the main road. "Are the authority concerned waiting for a fatal accident here before acting?" he queried. This could be due to the village administrative committee or JKKK and village chief are yet to be appointed since the new government took over three months ago, he said.

It does not matter who gets appointed but services to the communities must be the prime consideration, he stressed.

 

One former JKKK member shown pointing on tall grass wanted to volunteer cut the grass himself with own grass cutter,  however the others discouraged him since this good deed will never be appreciated by any government leaders, and moreover the JKR contractor appointed to do this work will claim his free work as their own and get paid for it.

Rollis who was village chief for more than two years does not expect to be reappointed after getting his termination letter but not happy when a replacement is not appointed immediately.  Some of my villagers are still approaching me for certification but in other villages of Putatan new village chiefs are already serving the people so why here in Penampang, everything is slow, he added.

He opined that a village chief should command the respect of his villagers, knows what are happening there as well as customs and traditions of the natives. He should recognise all his villagers especially in graveyard issue where outsiders might be buried in the village, he said. Hence it is time that village chiefs are elected by the residents and not otherwise, he added.

Village chiefs are also members of the Native Court or Mahkamah Anak Negeri (MAN) and should be given 5 year term and not based on political cronies, and should only be removed when unable to perform his duties.

My 2 years experience at the MAN, we found the services were really upgraded with nearly a week training to all new village chiefs and members of the MAN inclusive of computerisation.  Are the new recruits able to continue the service smoothly or are they starting with a new round of trainings?  Everytime there is a change of politics, is the MAN going to be overhauled again and again without end, so when will this court be uplifted same as the other courts? Rollis concluded.

Pix:  the human height grass on the road

Inset:  Rollis Mitol

 

 

 

 

FIRST EVER YELLOW BRIDGE IN SABAH, IMPRESSIVE BUT STILL OPEN TO IMPROVEMENTS

 First drafted on Sun 20 Dec 2020.

PENAMPANG.  The first yellow suspension bridge in the district if not in the state, built at Kasigui here appears very impressive with the walkway looking like a steel plate instead of the usual  wooden planks on wire mesh. On closer inspection, it is made of fibreglass with yellow surface colours.

A lady flower stall owner at the foot of the bridge said the bridge was repaired twice this year but the yellow one was installed in first week of December and was completed in a few days after being missing for a few months. She heard from the contractors that the bridge was meant to last around ten years as opposed to weak wooden planks.

However a medical consultant opined that going up and down the bridge is unsafe for senior citizens and elderly where the sharp ridges can lead to trips and fall since there is no handles to hold on.  Meanwhile the frequently flooding river moyog give rise to waterborne diseases which need urgent attention from those in government.

Meanwhile videos and photos of the latest attraction are going around social media spawing spoofs and parodies of the Beatle's old hit, "Yellow Submarine"  all for fun,  and could promote tourism in the district if not for the Covid-19 pandemic.

Pix shows the bridge from Kg Nampasan side with a signboard from National Healthy Community encouraging walking as exercise with calories burnt for every thousand steps.

VERY BAD SERVICES FROM QEH 1, SAYS NGO SPRA

SABAH PEOPLE'S RIGHT ASSOCIATION ALSO WANTS PRESENT EXECUTIVE OFFICER OF PENAMPANG DISTRICT COUNCIL MAINTAINED.
18 April 2019

From left: Chen Hing Heong,  President Lee Pun Yee and lily Chong (committee member)


PENAMPANG.
The president of Sabah People's Right Association Mr Lee (pic) informed today that he will send a letter the the Minister of Local Government and Housing Datuk Jaujan Sambakong and copied to the Chief Minister Datuk Seri Shafie Apdal, regarding their petition to maintain the existing Executive Officer Mr Tang Yang Ming here instead of being transferred to Pitas.
He justified their action as follows:
The EO had attended to their complaints regarding roads, drains and even stray pigs invading housing areas with efficiency,  getting his men to start actions immediately without any excuse.
Lee said the EO has already 2 years of experience handling problems of Penampang hence the transfer will be a loss to the district. He confirmed that this protest is not done on his behalf but was also requested by other residents in housing areas here.
Lee opined that new officer will have to learn from the beginning how to handle the problems in the district.


Meanwhile, Lee also recorded his strongest complaint about the poor service he and other patients are receiving from Queen Elizabeth Hospital No 1. He said he will be writing to the Minister of Health Dr. Dzulkefly Ahmad regarding several cases.
Case 1: On 26.11.2018 a daughter of an elderly patient, Lu Wong Siew  went to the emergency outpatient section asking where to find the medicine for her father. A lady doctor purportedly scold them at the top of her voice saying "this is not the pharmacy". After arguing with the family, the doctor allegedly challenged them to complain to the director. The complainant has met the male director of the hospital without result, so when the Association wants to meet the director, they were told not to "campur hal" or get involved with the issue. As a result the Association wants at least an apology from the hospital to the patient and the doctor involved be given a warning letter.
Mr Lee ask why the LIKAS hospital for women and children has a great record with no complaints and praise the leadership of Director Tan Bee Hwai,  and that QEH1 should emulate the work ethics of Likas Hospital.

Mr Lee also said the hospital still has shortages of certain medication for elderly and ask why this has yet to be solved after forming of the new government.
Citing the case of his wife who is a diabetic and suffering from a swollen stomach.
A lady doctor said the stomach may be filled with water so Xrays and blood samples were taken but results showed no problems. A stomach scan was recommended but the appointment for the Hospital scanning section can only be done in SIX months, otherwise go to private clinics.
Mr Lee ask whether the stomach ailment can wait for 6 months, while poor people are expected to go to expensive private clinics. The diabetic section dont even know where the forms are, to apply for the scanning appointment.
Mr Lee has since manage to bring his wife for scanning at a Metrolyn private hospital, but still wants to ask the minister why more scanning machines cannot be made available at the QEH.

This complaint was forwarded to Dr Rundi who requested for Mr Lee's contact number.
However at the time of writing, Mr Lee confirmed he has yet to be contacted by Director Dr Rundi.

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RESPECT THE RIGHTS OF CITIZEN FIRST SAY NGO PRESIDENT

WHILE THE STATELESS CHILDREN IN SABAH ARE POTENTIAL DANGERS..
4 April 2019

interviewed by RTM tv1

from Left, Lam Yu Koh (Dep President), Lily Chong (AJK) , Heng ( IC victim ), President Lee and Chen Hing Heong (AJK) displaying all the relevant documents

PENAMPANG.  The National Registration Department (JPN) must respect the rights of their own citizen first, said Lee Pun Yee, President of Sabah People's Right Association who is representing a fisherman Heng Book Chai who has been applying for his IC since 1995. 

According to Lee, the JPN Sabah has already interviewed Heng and taken all documentations including his thumbprints and have also telephoned an officer at JPN Putrajaya (name given) who told him the application can be made in any JPN office. However Lee and his committee members have gone three times to JPN Sabah Hq Kota Kinabalu and met a lady officer (name given) and was shown on computer screen that JPN data says this fisherman wanted to leave Malaysia and surrender his citizenship. However they were not allowed to have a printout or even to photograph the screen.

Currently Heng's only identification document is a "Resit Pengenalan Sementara" No 8724904 issued on 1 sept 2013 and was told to check every 6 months when the receipt was revalidated for another 6 months. After the fourth time the receipt is already expired. He had used the same document to travel to Miri as a fisherman in fishing boats and had even approached Sarawak politicians and even asked Party MCA for help, all to no avail.

Hence President Lee is now asking the present government, if they cannot take care of the rights of its own citizens, just who are they going to  ask for help now and wonder if the officers at JPN Putrajaya are really doing their job. Amazingly Mr Heng does have a valid driving licence with IC No. 500723-10-5801 valid from 11 Feb 2016 to 23 July 2021 but he is unable to vote without an IC and is currently staying in Kota Kinabalu surviving as a fishmonger.

When asked for details of his background, Mr Heng said he was born at Pulau Ketam Selangor on 23 July 1950 where both his parents were also red IC holders and grew up as a fisherman in the island. While working in Sabah in 1995 he met a factory manager called Tony from Pulau Penang looking for workers. So with a help of a friend he found 10 workers all with IC and Tony himself took all these workers to Penang. A few weeks later Tony called him to come to Penang to bring back the workers as all were found with fake IC. He said he did not know anything being lowly educated and found himself being arrested at the airport upon arrival. He was jailed at the police station, brought to court where the immigration officials just told him to plead guilty and he will be sent back to Sabah because he cannot afford a lawyer to defend himself.  Instead he said he was jailed 6 months and fined two thousand ringgit, the fade receipt he still keeps in his files. Upon being released after 4 months jail, Heng said all his documents were returned except his red IC and was given a 30 days special pass for 30 days entry permit for immigration office KK Sabah and told to apply for new IC there.  That was when his IC problem then started until today.

During the interview Heng still viewed the Immigration as having cheated him of his life, considering if he is capable of producing fake IC he would be rich and do not have to travel to Penang. 

He also stressed he has never gone out of Malaysia so he is asking which of the those officers have entered the fake data about him. On his behalf President Lee has been seeking an appointment to see Sabah Chief Minister Datuk Seri Shafie Apdal hoping for an introduction to see the Home Minister himself.

Regarding his association, Lee said the People's Right Association was registered in 2013 with himself as president with another 7 people as founding committee members. It started because he was always asked to help people with problems and one day a businessman suggested he started the association promising to donate some money as Patron. The donation was only one thousand and from then on he said all the expenses were borne by himself and his 2000 members all over the state.

Until now the issues they had looked into included roads, drains, birth certificate, IC and shopkeepers problems where 90% were solved. There was an odd complaint that a housing area was invaded by stray domesticated pigs let loosed from a nearby village, he said.

The current issues are the stateless children born out of wedlock by locals with foreign women and we have 800 pending cases he said. "I also scold the local men who only knows how to enjoy night time exercises but they are not responsible for the products," he said.

He is aware under the Article 15(A) of the Constitution, the federal government has the right to give permanent residence to these people however the standard reply to the application is "Not Approved,  but can re-apply". He said the government never give any reasons or inform if any documents were insufficient, just those words. These stateless children are huge problems for us because they cannot go to school, cannot go to hospital unless pay expensive cost, cannot get a job so in the end they are potential criminals of our country, he said.

Lee is unsure if Malaysia is a signatory of the United Nations Chapter of Human Rights however the recent opposition to the international convention on ICERD and the Rome Statute seemed to show this country has no regard of human rights, he opined.

CLEAR DRAINS IN PREPARATION FOR MAY FLOODING: PRITCHARD GUMBARIS

by Sugatman
PENAMPANG 29 MAR 2019

Political Secretary to Penampang MP,  Pritchard Gumbaris today chaired a meeting at District Council Meeting Room to get all the relevant authorities to prepare flood mitigation measures including clearing all existing drains from any blockages.
He said there should not be a repeat of last year flood on May 31 where actions were taken only after Penampang residents have lost millions in damaged properties submerged by the flood.

Present in the meeting were representatives from MP174, N19 Kepayan, N20 Moyog, Council EO, District Officer, District Engineers of  JKR, JPS, Bomba, UPPM Moyog and Kepayan, Chairman or representatives of all MPKKs in the district, and four concession contractors awarded to maintain major drains.

Pritchard said the people will fault all government authorities if no effort is seen in clearing all drains because the month of April and May is usually the flood season while cleaning works is best done during the dry season.
He also requested for grassroot feedbacks from the MPKK where are the flood prone areas. The top 10 includes Kibabaig, Boliga, Kolopis, Siga roundabout, Jln Tai Pek Kung, Bundusan Plaza, Kohizan, Kg Sugud amongst others.

JKR reported there is a resident who closed the drainage for his access road justifying he does not want the flood to flow  through his premises and the representative pledge to meet the owner and assess the situation.

All MPKKs were urged to carry out their own gotong royong to clear their drains and to seek assistance from the council such as when excavators are needed.

Kampung Tinduuzon reported that two long drains up to 2 km long has never been cleared and now fully silted as well as full of lalang.

Drainage department said the MPKK must resubmit applications so that they can check under whose jurisdiction to maintain the drains and they can apply for allocations.

Another kampung reported having written to UPPM regarding a drain where the concrete sides have collapsed and the banks eroded.
The representatives of concessionaires said they will check under whose contracts is responsible for carrying out these works. !!

Kampung Guunsing says they have been suffering from floods since 1980 because the existing drains are not even connected to Parit Juta !!! And no respond to their application for upgrading of the drains causing a bottleneck of drainage flow.

JKR informed that road drains are designed to clear water from roads only but they do not know which catchment flood flow to their drains.

Globinaco informed their drain clearing concession carry out two cycles per year viz January/June and July/December.

MPKK Kibabaig reported the drains along Jln Panglima Banteng is always blocked that the water flows across the road. The Lomunu area also are not connected to the main drain while the earth drains near the hills are always silted. He recommended a box culvert should be built across the road.

JKR reported that the land acquisition cost is too big that the project may be KIVed.

JPS reported that the drain next to the stadium is already completed.

MPKK Sugud reported the status of river bank enlargement is still unknown and the river is flowing in unknown directions.Worse areas affected are transformer station, Kg Kondis, Kondohon and Tampasak and the school compound.  A bridge structure which is too small also cause a bottleneck in the flow of water. The concession contractors also requested their work should connect to the outfall of the drains and must have SOP where all the rubbish and silt from the drains are carted away to their dump instead of leaving them at the side of the drains.

Terawi MPKK reported about a road to Terawi Tengah used by students to the school which became narrow due to digging and filling. This is to be reported to UPKM.

Ramaya reported that on left and right side of Pan Borneo highway, the grass that was cut were left to rot inside the drain.

The chairman urged that all the works should be completed by end of April, MPKK can do gotong royong around their Dewans and write in to the council for assistance to dispose the rubbish collected and insure all drains are clear of rubbish.  All works done must be photographed so that the rakyat knows what is going on and even if some flooding occurs, they will know that all the best efforts have been done.

HERE are some SUGAT questiions:

1.  After 56 years of Malaysia,  some departments and contractors still talking about identifying whose job is it to clean up what drains?? Should not it be a case where  the name of road and drains is mention, everyone should know whose job it is??

2.  After 56 years of Malaysia,  we are still talking about asking for allocations from state or federal every now and then, should not it be that all departments have fixed allocation ready to maintain all drains under their jurisdiction instead of begging through state ADUN or federal MP everytime a drain gets blocked or silted?

3.  Should not ALL drains be clean at ALL times instead of cleaning it up before an impending rainy seasons, considering that we really cannot predict when the rain and flood is coming,  maybe tomorrow their will be a flood?

VERY FUNNY HOW ASIAN COUNTRIES GET WORKS DONE... indeed.

By Sugatman.

NO STRESS, NO WORRIES: YB JENIFER LASIMBANG

ON RECENT MEDIA BACKLASH ABOUT PARENTS ASKING JOBS FOR THEIR UNEMPLOYED GRADUATE CHILDREN

23 Mar 2019 by Sugatman

 

Enjoying time with a mother at Kampung Tuaui coinciding with World Water Day

I am not stressed at all by all the brickbats, attacks and criticism resulting from my latest comments on facebook about parents calling me for jobs for their unemployed graduate children, said Assemblywoman for Moyog Jenifer Lasimbang. 

The fact is that I have advised all of them to register their names on a job site to increase their chances of getting a job based on their qualifications.  Instead some parents say their children do not know how to enter the website. When ask what degree their children have, the answer included degree in computer science!  Maybe they want the jobs brought to them on a plate without applications and interviews, she said.

A few months after we formed the new government,  MP Darrel Leiking and I opened a job fair at KDCA hall where more than 3000 jobs of all kinds were being offered by over 30 companies opening booths.  There were not many parents with their unemployed graduated children coming to look for jobs then, she said.

Instead a horde of reporters from Malaya came and were more interested to ask MP Darrel if he deserved his datukship, rather than talking about jobs.

 Similarly, those who have attacked me on facebook are mostly cybertroopers from Malaya, she said.

However, these apparent negative publicity instead brought positive results when some potential employers rang my office to inquire about the list of these graduates, she said.

As for the opposition leaders who have strongly criticised me in all media, they should instead show how many jobs they have given to the graduates during the 30 years they were running the government, she concluded.   by Sugatman.