NOV 29 — I was led to believe that the villagers in Sabah are tech savvy.
With the millions of ringgit spent on 1 Malaysia laptops and smart phones which were given away during the elections, plus the creation of so many wireless villages, one would be silly to think otherwise.
I even saw electric cables lining the often slippery, gravel uphill road to Kampung Rundum, one of the remote villages in Sabah.
So imagine my surprise when a colleague said, “There is no electricity running in the cables. They are just for show.”
This is Sabah, folks. Ironically, it is one of the richest states in the Federation of Malaysia.
So rich that the some children get ready for school at 3am, walk along dark unlit, dusty, landslide-prone roads for about two hours to attend class.
Where pregnant mothers have to travel at least an hour to the nearest health clinic, and malnutrition is so rampant because mothers feed their babies rice water and sugar to satisfy their baby’s hunger.
One 70-year-old man, wearing a “I love PM” T-shirt said, “I walked three hours to the nearest health clinic, waited another hour for the Medical Assistant to finish lunch, and was seen for less than 5 minutes for a stomach complaint.”
Another, when asked about what their YBs have done for them, said, “We’ll have to wait until the next election when they visit us. Or if we are lucky, a little bit sooner.”
Out of 105 patients I saw that day, 35 per cent had chronic diseases, and almost all had complications from unhygienic food preparation and poor dietary habits. Because they lack resources, and the financial ability to buy them, they eat rice with salt and sugar.
No vegetables. No proteins of any kind. Just rice, salt and sugar.
Who cares about vitamins and balanced diet when you have eight mouths to feed?
If you think you know hardship and poverty, think again.
For a country that can afford to spend billions of ringgit on foreign consultants, empty corridors and astronaut programmes, we should treat the less fortunate better.
Closing an eye to their right for basic amenities like clean water, electricity, telephone lines, clinics and proper hostels in schools are plain inhuman.
Efforts to attain a high income nation status and creating a knowledgeable and equitable society must include the poor. Leaving them behind, whether politically or financially motivated, will only hinder our progress and development as a civilised nation.
Mahatma Gandhi said, “The true measure of any society can be found in how it treats its most vulnerable members.”
I cannot agree more.
* This is the personal opinion of the columnist.
