Sabah must take direct role in its oil and gas or risk being sidelined, says Warisan
The party's information chief, Datuk Mohd Azis Jamman ( pic ), was responding to Sabah Finance Minister Datuk Seri Masidi Manjun, who said recently that the state was not ready to bid for oil blocks.
'If we claim we lack expertise, why not recruit and appoint true experts? Find and hire qualified professionals, not political loyalists whose only skills are to plunder and pander.
'And if Sabah has no experience, how will we ever gain experience if we never start?' he said in a statement on Wednesday (July 9).
Azis's remarks followed Masidi's statement at the state assembly on Tuesday (July 8), that Sabah International Petroleum (SIP) and SMJ Energy were not bidding for oil and gas blocks due to a lack of technical expertise and capital.
Masidi was referring to the Mutiara Cluster project off the coast of Sandakan, which was recently awarded to Dialog Resources Sdn Bhd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Dialog Group Berhad — a company based in Peninsular Malaysia.
Azis argued that the state could bring in talent from outside if needed, while ensuring local professionals learn alongside them.
'Every million starts with number one. Waiting forever keeps Sabah permanently at the margins of its own wealth,' he said.
On capital concerns, Azis pointed out that the state government had previously raised nearly RM1bil through a sukuk issuance to settle legacy debts, including vessel purchases whose current status is unclear.
'Don't tell us it's impossible to raise funds for SMJ Energy to participate in both upstream and downstream sectors,' he said.
He also suggested forming smart partnerships with credible investors while ensuring Sabah retains control over resource management.
Azis questioned whether PETRONAS' early contractors were fully experienced when they were first appointed, arguing that Sabah too can build capacity through action.
'It's ironic to hear about 'kerja diam-diam tapi hasil ada' when in reality, Sabah's oil wealth still leaves our shores, and our people see so little,' he said.
Azis said the real question is not whether Sabah is ready — but whether its leaders are ready to stop political patronage and prioritise Sabah's long-term interests.
'True leadership doesn't wait for perfect conditions. True leadership means starting now — building expertise, controlling our resources, and ensuring Sabah finally benefits directly from the wealth beneath our own soil and sea,' he stressed.
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Daily Express
9 hours ago
- Daily Express
1963 State Anthem that still inspires
Published on: Sunday, August 03, 2025 Published on: Sun, Aug 03, 2025 By: Datuk Teddy Chin Text Size: 'Sabah Tanah Airku. Negeri kita yang tercinta, Pemuda-pemudi semua marilah, Bangunlah Bersatu semua. Marilah Bersama serta maju jaya, Merdeka sepanjang masa, Bersatu segala bangsa sentosa, Sabah negeri Merdeka.' Above are the lyrics of our State Anthem, Sabah Tanah Airku or Sabah My Homeland. It was written by H.B. Hermann, a Singapore resident. It was chosen after winning a competition on May 16, 1963, and first aired over radio on July 18 the same year. The song officially became the State Anthem upon Sabah's accession to Malaysia on September 16, 1963. As students, we learnt and sang it in schools since 1963. As adults, we sing it or at least stand at attention whenever it is sung or played in functions, normally after the national anthem, Negara Ku. But how many us can really memorize the words or pay attention to its meaning or significance. Most of us just take it for granted. The words go through our left ears and out of our right ears after it is sung. Nobody, including leaders except a few, would bother to memorize the words or talk about its significance. Until Sabah Finance Minister Datuk Seri Panglima Masidi Manjun made it the theme of his speech in Kota Kinabalu recently. The Deputy President of Parti Gagasan Rakyat Sabah (PGRS) was speaking at the Joint-Opening of the PGRS Youth, Women and Young Women (Beliawanis) wings of PGRS. He said the lyrics of the State Anthem first sung in 1963 still hold meaning today and represent the vision of past Sabah leaders, a vision that must be revived and defended. Masidi stated that Sabah Tanah Airku embodies spirit of Sabah's political struggle, adding that Sabahans should take inspiration from the song, describing it as the soul of Sabah's political identity and the guiding force for its future. He pointed out that the message behind Sabah Tanah Airku, sung at every official function, encapsulates the very values GRS upholds: Unity, pride, relentless commitments to progress. 'The entire spirit of our political life, our love for Sabah, our dream for development, our hope for unity, is captured in that one song. When we say Sabah First, it's not merely a slogan. It is the essence of who we are and it comes directly from the mandate embedded in our anthem,' Masidi said. He said that the Sabah Maju Jaya slogan frequently criticized by political opponents, is not a partisan catchphrase but a continuation of the aspirations laid out in the State Anthem. 'When someone mocks or belittle Sabah Maju Jaya, what they are really doing is belittling their own State. They are mocking their own State Anthem. Sabah Maju Jaya was not created by GRS. 'It is actually a part of our inherited history, and must uphold it as the foundation of our effort and struggle. 'We want to always be independent, not just physically free, but mentally free. Free to think and determine what is best for Sabah. We do not want our thinking to be influenced by outside elements that make us lose our Sabahan identity. We want to remain Sabahans, with thoughts that are our own. 'And that is why we focus on local parties, because we want Sabah to develop based on its own model of progress. Not because someone else want us to do this or that. 'Yes, we want to be friends with others, but we will make friends on our own terms, not on terms dictated by others. This is our struggle,' he stressed. He also took aim at detractors who offer constant criticisms without solutions, pointing out, 'People can talk, people can criticize. But there are those who are good at criticizing yet say very little about what their plans are to solve problems. Right now, everyone can criticize. Even birds like the magpie and mynah that can talk, can also criticize. 'I understand there is criticism every day, in the newspapers, in the State Assembly. That is true. But for me, it has reached a point where: 'What you say is your problem, not my problem.' 'Let us focus on what truly matters. We have a track record. What do the critics have to show for themselves? We are not here to silence criticisms – we are here to deliver results. Let our work speak for us. With the State gearing up for the next election, he warned of the consequences of losing local control and GRS' achievements must be defended. 'That is why we must win this election. Because we want Sabah to progress, because we love Sabah, and we want these achivements to be multiplied in the future. We are not merely defending GRS' achivement, we are defending the future of our people – especially the younger generation. 'If we lose this government, others will take over. And if that happens, what will become of Sabah in 10 years? Will our youth still have a place? Will Sabahans still be in charge of Sabah?' he questioned. 'We are not just defending GRS' track record. We are defending the future of our people – especially our young ones. Sabah's future is too important to be handed away,' he said. In a passionate conclusion, Masidi urged unity and focus. 'Let go of petty quarrels. But don't let small conflicts become walls that block big dreams. This is not about individual ambition. This is about ensuring Sabahans remain masters in their own homeland,' he said. 'You are the master. You own Sabah. Not someone else. We, the people of Sabah, must determine our future. No one else,' said Masidi. The Sabah Maju Jaya slogan has been mocked more than once, mostly by the Opposition or GRS' nemesis. It was even mentioned in a mocking way in the State Assembly more than once. An Assemblyman, however, was not so lucky about 2 or 3 years ago. He said his constituents were mocking the Sabah Maju Jaya slogan because there were still many shortcomings in the constituency and that he was merely conveying their feelings. However, the then Deputy Speaker who was chairing the session did not find him funny. Datuk Ahmad Abdul Rahman, a lawyer and a former Magistrate who tolerates no nonsense, told the backbencher in no uncertain terms: 'The Sabah Maju Jaya slogan as enshrined in the State Crest is not to be mocked. If in Pakistan, you could be shot,' he said angrily. That shows how important and sacred the slogan is. I need not say more. Case closed. Coming back to Masidi, I always think that he and Hajiji make a good team. I would describe the Hajiji-Masidi combination as akin to the deadly James Wong-Hassan Sani 'deadly' team during the hey days of Sabah football or soccer. What more now with Tun Musa Aman as the Governor – perfect. Both Hajiji and Masidi were Tun Musa's trusted lieutenants when the latter was Chief Minister. In fact, immediately after the 2018 election, both Hajjiji and Masidi were made DCMs. Masidi is a lawyer by training and outsiders cannot simply 'Klentong' with him. He is known to be outspoken and does not mince his words. He once said if Sabah couldn't get what she wanted at a meeting with Petronas, he would bang the table. Upon graduation as a lawyer, the then young Masidi became a Legal Adviser to the Sabah Forestry Department in Sandakan. He was later hand-picked by Chief Minister Tan Sri Harris Salleh to be the Tuaran District Officer. He was later promoted to become the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Culture, Youth & Sports. He later resigned to join politics. Through Umno, he became an Assemblyman somewhere in Ranau and eventually a Minister. There is something in common between Masidi and his present Cabinet colleague Datuk Seri Panglima Jahid Jahim, the Rural Development Minister. First, they are both Muslim Dusun, with Masidi being from Ranau and Jahid from Kiulu in the Tuaran district. Masidi is proud of his being a Dusun despite being a Muslim. He once told off the State Mufti who suggested that Sabah KDM Muslims should perhaps considering 'Malay-nised' (Memelayukan) themselves. 'I may be a Muslim, but I will always also be a Dusun,' said Masidi. In fact even when he was still in the Forestry Department in the 70s, he was the Legal Adviser to USDA (United Sabah Dusun Association). The other similarity between Masidi and Jahid is that they were both Tuaran District Officers. While Masidi was hand-picked by Harris, Jahid was hand-picked by Tan Sri Joseph Pairin Kitingan who succeeded Harris. Not only that, after being Tuaran DO for some time, both ended up as Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Culture, Youth & Sports. Not only that, Masidi later became Culture, Youth & Sports Minister while Jahid became the Assistant Minister. Talking about a small world. By the way, Hajiji is lucky in that he is also surrounded by intellectuals including lawyers in his GRS government. Presidents of 2 GRS component parties, Tan Sri Pandikar Amin of Usno and Datuk Seri Panglima Yong Teck Lee of SAPP are both lawyers. Pandikar was the first Sabahan to be the Speaker of the Dewan Rakyat, the Lower House of the Malaysian Parliament. Before that, he had been both a State and Federal Minister, a feat that not many Sabahans could achieve. Yong was only the second Sabah Chinese to become Chief Minister, the first being the late Tan Sri Peter Lo in the 60s. He is also out-spoken and you can't just keep him quiet, just like Pandikar. He would not hesitate to open his mouth when he has something to say. Although Datuk Seri Panglima Dr Jeffrey Kitingan is not a lawyer, the Harvard-educated graduate is an intellectual. I don't think any other Sabahan can match his record of fighting for Sabah's rights since the early 90s. He was out-spoken at a time when ISA was still around and for that he went to jail for more than two years. His arrest silenced many Sabahans especially politicians who feared that they might be next on the shopping list. But not Tan Sri Bernard Dompok who spoke about it in Parliament with then PM Dr M starring at him angrily from across the floor. Politics being what it is, Dr Jeffrey is also a potential future Sabah Chief Minister apart from Masidi when Hajiji calls it a day. But then again, Man Proposes God disposes. Kak Wan (Anwar's wife) once said: 'Manusia merancang, Tuhan turut merancang' (Man plans, God also plans). I wish both men well. The views expressed here are the views of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of the Daily Express. If you have something to share, write to us at: [email protected]
The Star
a day ago
- The Star
AI researchers are negotiating US$250mil pay packages. Just like NBA stars
SAN FRANCISCO: Over the summer, Matt Deitke got a phone call from Mark Zuckerberg, Meta's chief executive. Zuckerberg wanted Deitke, a 24-year-old artificial intelligence researcher who had recently helped found a startup, to join Meta's research effort dedicated to 'superintelligence,' a technology that could hypothetically exceed the human brain. The company promised him around US$125mil (RM534.7mil) in stock and cash over four years if he came aboard. The offer was not enough to lure Deitke, who wanted to stick with his startup, two people with knowledge of the talks said. He turned Zuckerberg down. So Zuckerberg personally met with Deitke. Then Meta returned with a revised offer of around US$250mil (RM1bil) over four years, with potentially up to US$100mil (RM427.8mil) of that to be paid in the first year, the people said. The compensation jump was so startling that Deitke asked his peers what to do. After many discussions, some of them urged him to take the deal – which he did. Silicon Valley's AI talent wars have become so frenzied – and so outlandish – that they increasingly resemble the stratospheric market for NBA stars. Young AI researchers are being recruited as if they are Steph Curry or LeBron James, with nine-figure compensation packages structured to be paid out over several years. To navigate the froth, many of the 20-somethings have turned to unofficial agents and entourages to strategise. And they are playing hardball with the companies to get top dollar, much as basketball players shop for the best deals from teams. The difference is that unlike NBA teams, deep-pocketed AI companies like Meta, OpenAI and Google have no salary caps. (Curry's most recent four-year contract with the Golden State Warriors was US$35mil/RM150mil less than Deitke's deal with Meta.) That has made the battles for AI talent even wilder. Over the past few weeks, recruiting AI free agents has become a spectacle on social media, much like the period before a trade deadline in sports. As Meta, Microsoft, Google and OpenAI have poached employees from one another, job announcements have been posted online with graphics resembling major sports trades, made by the online streaming outlet TBPN, which hosts an ESPN-like show about the tech and business world. 'BREAKING: Microsoft has poached over 20 staff members from DeepMind over the last six months,' read one recent TBPN post about Microsoft's hiring from Google's DeepMind lab. Jordi Hays, a co-host of TBPN, said that as tech and AI have gone mainstream, more people are following the recruitment fray 'the way our friends from college obsess over sports – the personalities, the players, the leagues.' On Wednesday, Zuckerberg said Meta planned to continue throwing money at AI talent 'because we have conviction that superintelligence is going to improve every aspect of what we do.' Superintelligent AI would not just improve the company's business, he said, but would also become a personal tool that 'has the potential to begin an exciting new era of individual empowerment.' A Meta spokesperson declined to comment. Deitke did not respond to a request for comment. The job market for AI researchers has long had parallels to professional sports. In 2012, after three academics at the University at Toronto published a research paper describing a seminal AI system that could recognise objects like flowers and cars, they auctioned themselves off to the highest corporate bidder – Google – for US$44mil (RM188.21mil). That kicked off a race for talent across the tech industry. By 2014, Peter Lee, Microsoft's head of research, was likening the market to that for up-and-coming pro football players, many of whom were making about US$1mil (RM4.28mil) a year. 'Last year, the cost of a top, world-class deep learning expert was about the same as a top NFL quarterback prospect,' Lee told Bloomberg BusinessWeek at the time, referring to a type of AI specialist. 'The cost of that talent is pretty remarkable.' The leverage that AI researchers have in negotiating job terms has only increased since OpenAI released the ChatGPT chatbot in 2022, setting off a race to lead the technology. They have been aided by scarcity: Only a small pool of people have the technical know-how and experience to work on advanced artificial intelligence systems. That's because AI is built differently from traditional software. These systems learn by analysing enormous amounts of digital data. Few researchers have experience with the most advanced systems, which require giant pools of computing power available to only a handful of companies. The result has been a fresh talent war, with compensation soaring into the hundreds of millions of dollars a year, from millions of dollars a year. In April, Zuckerberg – whose company was struggling to advance its AI research – dived in by sending personal messages to potential recruits, offering them larger and larger sums. His approach was similar to that of sports franchise owners, two Meta employees said. Even if the offers seemed absurd, if the new hires could help increase revenue by even half a percent – especially for a company that is closing in on a US$2 trillion (RM8.56 trillion) market capitalisation – it would be worth it, the people said. 'If I'm Zuck and I'm spending US$80bil (RM342.20bil) in one year on capital expenditures alone, is it worth kicking in another US$5bil (RM22.4bil) or more to acquire a truly world-class team to bring the company to the next level?' Hays said. 'The answer is obviously yes.' Meta's initial offers to engineers varied but hovered in the mid-tens of millions of dollars, three people familiar with the process said. The company also offered recruits something that was arguably more attractive than money: computing power. Some potential hires were told they would be allotted 30,000 graphical processing units, or GPUs, for their AI research, one of the people said. GPUs, which are powerful chips ideal for running the calculations that fuel AI, are highly coveted. Zuckerberg has hired with the help of the List, a document with the names of the top minds in AI, two people familiar with the effort said. Many on the List have three main qualifications: a doctorate in an AI-related field, experience at a top lab and contributions to AI research breakthroughs, one of the people said. The Wall Street Journal previously reported some details of the List. Some researchers on the List have created chat groups on Slack and Discord to discuss offers, two people in the groups said. When someone lands an offer, they can drop the details in the group chats and ask peers to weigh in. (AI is a tight-knit field where people often know one another.) They trade information about which companies to approach for another offer so they can build up their price, the people said. Working with friends can be just as important as the money. After a researcher joins a new lab, the first thing that person often does is try to recruit friends, two people familiar with the process said. The talent wars have started causing pain. OpenAI has changed its compensation structure to account for the shift in the market, employees at the company said, and is asking those approached by competitors to consult executives before immediately accepting offers. 'Are we countering? Yes,' Mark Chen, OpenAI's chief research officer, said at a company meeting this month, according to a recording reviewed by The New York Times. But he added that OpenAI had not matched Meta's offers because 'I personally think that in order to work here, you have to believe in the upside of OpenAI.' OpenAI declined to comment. (The Times has sued OpenAI and Microsoft, claiming copyright infringement in relation to news content related to AI systems. The two companies have denied the claims.) Not all of Meta's overtures have succeeded. The company has been rebuffed by some researchers, two people said, partly because Zuckerberg's vision for artificial intelligence was unclear compared to those at other companies. Still, the frenzy has allowed even little-known researchers like Deitke to chart their own destinies. Deitke, who recently dropped out of a computer science PhD program at the University of Washington, had moonlighted at a Seattle AI lab called the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence. There, he led the development of a project called Molmo, an AI chatbot that juggles images, sounds and text – the kind of system that Meta is trying to build. In November, Deitke and several Allen Institute colleagues founded Vercept, a startup that is trying to build AI agents, which can use other software on the Internet to autonomously perform tasks. With about 10 employees, Vercept has raised US$16.5mil (RM70.6mil) from investors such as former Google chief executive Eric Schmidt. Then came Deitke's back-and-forth with Zuckerberg. After Deitke accepted Meta's roughly US$250mil four-year offer, Vercept's CEO posted on social media, 'We look forward to joining Matt on his private island next year.' – © 2025 The New York Times Company This article originally appeared in The New York Times
BusinessToday
2 days ago
- BusinessToday
ITMAX Strikes Profit Sharing Parking Deal With MPSJ
ITMAX System Bhd has secured another smart parking contract through its subsidiary Selmax Sdn Bhd to operate the Selangor Intelligent Parking (SIP) system for the Subang Jaya City Council (MBSJ). Under the 10-year agreement, Selmax will manage all gazetted parking spaces within MBSJ's jurisdiction. The deal includes a revenue-sharing model, with Selmax entitled to 50% of parking-related collections and an optional five-year extension. 'We are honoured to be appointed as the SIP operator for MBSJ, marking ITMAX's strategic entry into Selangor,' said William Tan Wei Lun, Managing Director and CEO of ITMAX. 'This aligns with Selangor's Smart City agenda and reflects our commitment to building connected, efficient and sustainable urban ecosystems.' Tan said the partnership aims to enhance urban mobility and public safety while improving the overall quality of life through advanced smart city technologies. Related
