Save Sabah!

" (Sandakan, 21 June 2009) State Minister for Industrial Development Datuk Raymond SK Tan said, very surely, that no coal power plant will be built in Sandakan, therefore the people of Sandakan, including the Chinese Chambers of Commerce, should not worry about this matter anymore.

Tan, who is also the State Assemblyman for Tanjung Papat, said this when being interviewed after attending the "National Unity Week" opening ceremony.

The Minister pointed out that he knew that the people of Sandakan are very concerned about this matter, but now, he can very certainly say that: No coal power plant will be built in Sandakan, so the people of Sandakan can eliminate their worries in this regard.

He emphasised: The Chief Minister and me have repeatedly stressed that [we] will not do anything which the Sandakan people do not wish for, or any action which will hurt the Sandakan people, and at the same time I have done everything I should do, so please be confident in us!

Datuk Tan expressed this when being inquired about the recent incident in the State Assembly where a Barisan Nasional Assemblyman attacked a certain Municipal Councilor for allegedly opposing the Government’s development projects such as the coal power plant.

The Minister stressed that even he himself do not agree to the building of the coal power plant in Sandakan, therefore he did not criticise or disapprove of the individuals and organisations who are anti-coal power plant, including the Chinese Chambers of Commerce. Also earlier, when he was the Deputy Chief Minister, he had already conveyed the wishes of the Sandakan people to the Prime Minister Dato’ Seri Najib Tun Razak when they met personally. At that time, he was attending the meeting as the representative of Chief Minister Datuk Seri Panglima Musa Aman, and the meeting was called by Tenaga Nasional Berhad to discuss whether to build the coal power plant. During that meeting, he already very clearly expressed his own wishes and the wishes of the Sandakan people. And the Prime Minister himself at that time also felt that it was very unsuitable to build this coal power plant in Sandakan.

The Minister emphasised that the setting up of a coal power plant requires approval from the State Goverment, but the relevant parties still have not obtained this approval until today, therefore he hopes that the people of Sandakan and the relevant organisations do not ‘fan’/'exploit’ this issue anymore.

The Minister also said that even though the Chinese Chambers of Commerce is very concerned about the coal power plant issue, but I can already confirm that it will not be built in Sandakan, and therefore there should not be any more ‘fanning’/'exploiting’ of this issue. "

Above article translated from Berita Harian Merdeka , see below for full text :

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Popularity: 11% [?]

World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Malaysia will object to the setting up of a coal-fired power plant no matter where the location is in Sabah.

"As far as coal is concerned, our (WWF-Malaysia) stand is clearÉthere should be no coal-fired power plant in Sabah,"

He said aside from the eventual impact on the environment, the cost of the coal-fired power plant operation would also be enormous

"From Silam in Lahad Datu to Sandakan and now we heard it is going to be built in the Felda area (in the East Coast)," he said, adding the Felda area could be proposed since the people there are under a government scheme "so there would have no locus standi to object to it".

In this respect, he said WWF-Malaysia, as a global NGO, would record its objection if the proposal goes ahead in the Felda area.

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Popularity: 3% [?]

The ongoing ‘power rationing’ exercise by Sabah Electricity Sdn. Bhd. (SESB) has once again put the spotlight on the perennial power shortages which the people in this state have long suffered from. For many, these disruptions to daily economic and social activities can only be suffered in silence as it seems to be the norm.

The sole power utility in Sabah is the Sabah Electricity Sdn Bhd (SESB), 80% owned by national utility giant Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB), with the remaining 20% being owned by the Sabah state government.

The manner in which the Silam IPP project (also known as the 300MW coal-fired power plant project) was awarded in 2007 leaves much to be desired in the way of transparency and fair evaluation on the part of the federal government, and corporate governance on the part of TNB. For the first time, the federal government decided to undertake a tender exercise for an IPP project, with a supposed objective to obtain the best possible technical and commercial proposals.

 
When this tender closed, sometime in June 2006, a total of 13 bids were received, including one from a TNB subsidiary ie, TNB Remaco. The chronology of events, as shown below, subsequent to the tender closing gives substance to my earlier comments regarding transparency and corporate governance:

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Popularity: 9% [?]

The business community in Sabah is becoming increasingly hot under the collar because of disruptions in power supply. These occur two or three times a week, each time for three or four hours.

“Power rationing must be implemented fairly among all areas in the state. SESB must also provide a well-planned power rationing schedule so that losses and inconvenience can be minimised.”

“SESB and Tenaga Nasional are unfair. If electricity is disrupted in the peninsula, the traders are paid for the losses they have incurred. “So, we want the Sabah people to be given the same benefits,”

“It is crucial to have a generator with a large capacity to meet the increasing demands from our consumers in the east coast.

Sporadic power shortages suffered by Sabah can be expected to worsen in the short and medium run and the situation is not expected to stabilise by 2018 at the very earliest ……..

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Popularity: 3% [?]

” Unfair of SESB to blame residents of the east coast districts for rejecting the proposed coal-fired power plant because "actually what happened is solely because of the company’s own poor management".

News report quoting SESB Senior General Manager, Peter Lajumin, that the company has stopped ‘transferring’ power from the West Coast to the East Coast because it is simply does not make sense to do it since the West Coast is also experiencing power shortage.

"As the sole proprietor of power supply in Sabah, residents of the east coast districts feel it is a very irresponsible of SESB. It is also unfair to blame them for rejecting the proposed coal-fired power plant,"

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Popularity: 1% [?]