Basic amenities, infrastructure still big issues in Sabah

KOTA KINABALU, Sept 14 — Basic amenities and infrastructure, such as clean water supply, electricity, roads and mobile telecommunication network coverage are still big issues in Sabah today.

Those are the issues that have been the hot topics of discussions among various quarters, including politicians and villages in rural areas of the state.

In view of the 16th Sabah state election scheduled for the end of this month, the people of Sabah, especially those in rural areas, want their prospective representatives to focus on upgrading the basic infrastructure and amenities in their areas.

They claim that despite the development brought to those areas, they were still lagging behind, especially in terms of roads and telecommunication network access and coverage.

“We are grateful that Internet coverage has been made available in our village with the erection of the telecommunication tower recently, but we still need other developments like paved roads,” Sinson Madamin, village head of Kampung Pinahawaon, Inanam, told Bernama.

He said the villagers had been hoping for quite a while for a paved road linking Kampung Pinahawaon and Kampung Kionsom in Inanam to be built.

“The road is vital as it could help reduce the villagers’ travel time. If the road were made available for the villagers, they would only need 30 to 40 minutes to reach the Inanam town compared to the current two to three hours as they have to go to Kiulu and Tamparuli before they can reach the Inanam town or Kota Kinabalu.

“That is why we want the candidate who is elected to represent us at the State Assembly to fight for this and help voice out our request for a new road,” he said.

Sinson said residents in the village, as well as from the nearby villages, had been asking for the road to be built for the past 20 years, but nothing has been forthcoming.

“We really hope the next person elected to represent the people in Inanam will be someone who is really sincere in helping and serving the people,” he said.

Meanwhile, village head of Kampung Pinagon Baru in Kiulu, Martin Lotupas, said the villagers also wanted an assemblyman who would work really hard and understand the problems faced by the people.

“Besides, we also want a representative who is in the government bloc as no development would be brought to the villages if we are represented by an assemblyman who sits in the opposition bloc,” 

“We don’t want our village to be lagged behind in terms of infrastructure as compared to other villages represented by assemblymen from the ruling government,” he added. — Bernama