KOTA KINABALU: The RM18.24 million announced to help Sabah counter measures against disaster was merely an “extra” given to the state after huge flood hit the state on Sept 15.

Kota Kinabalu member of parliament Chan Foong Hin said prior to that, he was informed by Deputy Minister of Environment And Water in parliament’s Special Chambers on Tuesday that the federal government had budgeted a mere RM500,000.00 for Sabah’s emergency works.

“So, what PM Ismail Sabri announced yesterday is an “extra” given to Sabah after the West Coast of Sabah had experienced a huge flood before Malaysia Day.

“Out of this RM18million, RM16 million is meant for Covid 19 operations. It means that only less than RM2million is granted for flood relief. And out of this RM2million, the bulk (up to RM1.1million) is for the operations costs of 22 districts under the Disaster Management Committee,” he said in a statement.

On the other hand, he said netizen had also compared the allocation of this RM18 million given to Sabah with the RM78 million given to Kedah.

“RM500,000.00 (0.5 million) vs RM18 million, now that’s a huge difference, over 36 times!

“Kedah, such a so small state, and yet they are getting RM78 million. In comparison, Sabah has a much bigger land size and yet it is given only RM18 million!

“Is this the “fair” treatment by federal government to Sabah? Is this what we can only get with state government aligned with federal government?

To make things worse, this RM18million is only funding for flood relief, not even flood mitigation.

Chan also added that Sabah needed billions to implement an effective flood mitigation system for the West Coast of Sabah.