Without Sabah and Sarawak, Malaysia does not exist.
In this context, a strong economy in Sabah is reflected by a strong Malaysia economy, it is also true that a prosperous stable Sabah means a prosperous and stable Malaysia.
This is what the 1Malaysia concept is all about.
The National Cabotage Policy destroyed these ideals. Instead of integrating Sabah’s economy with the rest of Malaysia, it disintegrated the economy.
West Malaysia has one price structure while East Malaysia has another.
This is not about building a strong caring sovereign nation; it is about the strong over-powering the weak.
The manufacturing and electronic sectors which contribute 65% of the national GDP is on the decline.
This is mainly due to the decline in demands from traditional markets such as the United States and Europe.
In this context, Malaysia must seek fresh and new export markets for its manufacturing and electronic sector.
Efforts are being made to transform the Malaysia economy from being manufacturing and electronic-dependent to the service sector.
The transition towards the service sector is going to be long, tedious and difficult.
This situation offers an alternative, but it must be spearheaded by Sabah.
To ensure Malaysia’s survival as a nation remains intact, Sabah with its strategic location and intrinsic strength must be made the BIMP-EAGA (Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines- East Asean Growth Area) hub.
New markets
BIMP-EAGA has a population of more than 70 million people offers a market value of not less than USD400 billion per year.
These countries comprise newly affluent population hungry for good consumer goods.
If this market can be captured by Malaysia, the market value may off-set the declining demand from its traditional market such as the United States and Europe.
This is the best hope for the Malaysia’s manufacturing and electronic sector to sustain itself.
At the very least, it will offer the sector a respite during the transition period.
The BIMP-EAGA market is just the first part of the whole design.
Once the BIMP-EAGA market is established, Sabah as the leading service hub must look at the larger picture of the regional and Asia market which consist of not less than 3 billion people.
Sabah can be the catalyst which will stimulate trade in this region as well as Asia.
However, in choosing this alternative, there may occur two outcomes.
Firstly, making Sabah a service hub for BIMP-EAGA and Asia may see it compete and overshadow Port Klang and Singapore.
Secondly, in order to make Sabah a service hub for BIMP-EAGA and Asia the National Cabotage Policy must first be abolished.