After 51 years of Independence after the formation of Malaysia, Sabah still receives second-rate treatment compared to Peninsular Malaysia in terms of electricity supply.
Sabah DAP Vice Chairman Chan Foong Hin yesterday questioned why Sabahans needed to suffer interruptions in power supply compared to Sabah’s ‘partner’ Semenanjung Malaysia who do not face regular power outages. Following the transmission line trip in Kolopis and Segaliud, the entire Sabah Eastern Coastal Zone, namely Sandakan, Lahad Datu, Kunak, Semporna and Tawau experienced power disruptions yesterday morning.
The power outage had hit parts of the Eastern Coastal Zone since 6 in the morning.The disruption had lasted around 4 hours.
Many businesses were affected, Chan said, adding that the public were forced to accept their fate with no chance to voice out their grievances and were forced to accept the losses.
He pointed at the outdated and old electricity cables as being the cause for the power distribution failures. According to him, 80 percent of cables were old and is not suited for the increase in power supply.
Urging the Federal Energy, Green Technology and Water Minister, Maximus Ongkili, to work on replacing the cables, Chan reminded him that he had promised that the federal government would set aside Rm1.8 billion to enhance transmission and distribution of electricity in Sabah.
“I would like to take Dr Maximus to a serious task — get the RM1.8 billion to spend for next year’s budget, which would be tabled in parliament this coming October. Sabahans can’t tolerate this “no action talk only” type of lip service, we want action,” Chan said, demanding also the details of the ‘SESB makeover’ Dr Maximus had claimed to work on.
Chan also asked Dr Maximus Ongkili to be accountable for not not being able to achieve the System Average Interruption Duration Index (SAIDI) target of 350 minutes for Sabah. The entire state was hit by a blackout on January 17 this year, where power had only fully resumed after about 9 hours [540 minutes].
“I won’t ask Dr [Maximus Ongkili] to resign, but please, get the RM1.8 billion to replace the old cables in next years budget.” Chan said. -The Rocket
