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THE Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) on Nov 8 launched its 15th General Election (GE15) Manifesto containing four thrusts and 13 main pillars on the way forward for Sabah, which includes continuing to claim the rights of Sabah from the Federation.

Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor, who is GRS Chairman, said the coalition would continue its commitment to implement the Sayangi Sabah agenda as enshrined in the GRS Aku Janji (pledge) that was offered as the 16th State Election (PRN16) Manifesto.

“Our commitment has been translated by aligning the Sayangi Sabah agenda and GRS Aku Janji in the state development plan document called Hala Tuju Sabah Maju Jaya (SMJ), introduced on March 29, 2021, exactly six months after we received the people’s mandate,” he said at Sabah International Convention Centre (SICC) in Kota Kinabalu.

The four thrusts of the GRS struggle are Sabah First, Sabah Forward, Sabah Prosper and Sabah United.

“It contains 13 main pillars and was drafted taking into account the views and sentiments of the people in matters that are considered important,” he said.

Highlights of the manifesto:

• Empowering the economy of the State and the people of Sabah through three main sectors namely agriculture, industry and tourism – among which GRS will attract more investors to develop the agricultural (upstream) sector, strengthen the guarantee of success for farmers, fishermen and breeders, encourage modern agriculture, establish marketing centres for the agricultural sector and provide incentives.  In the industrial sector, GRS will attract investment to increase production and drive economic growth, while in the tourism sector, it will take advantage of the wealth of flora and fauna, encourage the involvement of entrepreneurs in agrotourism, introduce new tourism products, and at the same time attract more tourists from outside to Sabah.

• Empowering the management of energy resources for the Sabah Government to take back the management of SESB. GRS will also explore more new energy sources or renewable energy, especially those based on green technology, to ensure an environmentally friendly and sufficient energy supply.
• Continuing to claim the rights of Sabah from the Federation. GRS will continue to claim rights based on Article 112 (b), 112 (c) and Schedule 10 of the Federal Constitution and based on the spirit of the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63).
• l Ensuring the Federal Government carries out its responsibilities in improving the level of security in Sabah, especially in the Eastern Sabah Security Zone (Esszone) area, improving educational facilities by upgrading poor schools, as well as improving health facilities throughout the State.
• Development of women, family and society where GRS will continue to empower women in the field of entrepreneurship, more women as policymakers, preserve the welfare of single mothers and widows, as well as provide continuous assistance to single mothers, the disabled and the elderly.
• Encouraging youth involvement in the national development mainstream by providing special provisions for youth in the field of entrepreneurship and increasing the number of youth involvement by at least 30 per cent in policy-making.
• Empowering Sabah’s public service administration including improving the service delivery system, improving public service facilities, establishing a pension trust fund, special rewards and providing a special quota for young Sabahans to join the Federal public service in the Administrative and Diplomatic Officer (PTD) Services Scheme.
• Increasing involvement in the oil and gas industry. GRS will ensure Sabah’s total and continuous involvement in the industry, where Sabah becomes a partner to Petronas. At the same time, GRs will ensure that the smart partnership is able to generate profit.
• Giving priority to the implementation of basic facilities infrastructure, in the aspect of upgrading roads throughout Sabah and building and upgrading water plants, while the construction of the Pan Borneo Highway is expedited.
• Providing affordable housing facilities, including speeding up the implementation of the SMJ Rumah Mesra programme of 1,500 units and continuing it, providing more housing for the people.
• Improving land management where GRS will ensure the issuance of land titles for people’s land applications is expedited, establish a Native Land Foundation to protect Sabah’s Native Rights and expedite the issuance of village reserve titles.
• Political stability, racial unity, justice and people’s wellbeing. GRS will intensify efforts to foster unity between communities in Sabah across religions, races and cultures, ensure religious freedom based on the Federal Constitution is maintained, demand the Federal Government create the position of Deputy Prime Minister with significant powers for the Sabah Region and ensure that the funding allocation from the Federation is channelled directly to the State Government to administer.
•  Continuing the efforts to demand that the Parliamentary constituencies in Sabah be increased. GRS will continue efforts to get back the 35 per cent of the Parliamentary seats for Sabah and Sarawak until successful. 

Present were GRS deputy chairmen Datuk Seri Dr Maximus Ongkili who is also President of Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS), Datuk Seri Dr Jeffrey Kitingan who is President of Parti Solidariti Tanah Airku (Star), Datuk Seri Yong Teck Lee who is President of Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) and Tan Sri Pandikar Amin Mulia who is President of United Sabah National Organisation (Usno), GRS leaders and supporters as well as candidates.