Graft root of Sabah's woes

Daily Express

08-05-2025

Published on: Thursday, May 08, 2025
Published on: Thu, May 08, 2025
By: David Thien Text Size: Chin (second left) and Lo (second right) during that podcast session. Kota Kinabalu: Sabah's public enemy number one is corruption as it is the reason so many things have gone wrong in the State, according to former Sabah Law Society head Datuk Roger Chin. 'We must make the people so upset, so angry about corruption that they will not tolerate it. 'Once you do away with corruption, things will work as it should be, and money will stay here. And opportunities would go where they should have gone because they are qualified and the best persons for the job etc,' he said. He was speaking at NGO Sabar's Kopitiam Council podcast with Datuk John Lo on the 'Oversight & Reform of Government-Linked Companies (GLCs) Transparency, Accountability & Corruption Prevention. Why is Sabah struggling? Unpacking GLCs, corruption and lost billions,' he said. John, an ex-banker said people who have been put in trust have not been doing their proper job. I always feel we Sabahans are our biggest enemy.' He noted that some GLCs are putting in professional people to run them. 'They have professional management and good board members to perform very well,' Lo said. 'We have to reform.' 'We must transform ourselves. We must transform our mindset to get Sabah going well again.' Chin said civil society, media and the public are the three bodies that must be strong and proactive to play a vital role in the fight to check and curb corruption. 'Civil society must continuously talk about corruption and what is happening out there, basically educating the public about corruption. So civil society plays a major function to educate the public what corruption is and they must keep going and talk about policies. 'So part of Sabar's efforts will be talking about policies and solutions which civil society is very good at. 'The media should continue to do investigative studies to make sure that issues of corruption are made known. Imagine the 1MDB issue, if the media was not on it, 1MDB may never even have been an issue. 'The media has this tremendous power to shape society, depending on what they write, they could influence popular views. I have always said the media is one of the most powerful institutions in the world. 'That is why it is also a duty for them (media) to educate the public to let the public know about what is corruption and expose corruption,' said Chin. He said the public must never allow corruption to be a normal thing. We must question our leaders. 'If a politician takes personal affront to it, that means they may have no answer to you. There is nothing wrong in questioning your leaders. Chin said the public must not be ignored. 'You have social media. You have WhatsApp where you can viral anything you want.' 'You have the tool which was not available in the past and because of this, the public has got a tremendous amount of influence and ability to combat corruption.' Lo said Sabahan must also have faith in ourselves. 'If we do not have faith and confidence in ourselves as Sabahans, if we always think that other people are better, then we are not going to go anyway. 'We must know how to look after ourselves. That's why the Sabahan First Policy is very important. 'Instead of making other people rich, we should make ourselves rich. I hope to see many Sabahans become billionaires who will stay and invest their monies in Sabah,' said Lo. * Follow us on Instagram and join our Telegram and/or WhatsApp channel(s) for the latest news you don't want to miss. * Do you have access to the Daily Express e-paper and online exclusive news? Check out subscription plans available.
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