Tag: DBKK

Environment

An eyesore that is a pot of gold

Sabah Insights

Poor Sembulan Tengah villagers stand to be millionaires overnight

Dilapidated wooden stilt houses at Sembulan Tengah water village.

To say that Sembulan Tengah is an eyesore is an understatement. The 42-acre (17-hectare) water village whose history dates back to the early 20th century with the setting up of an ethnic Chinese fishing settlement has become not just an obnoxious rubbish dump but a shelter for illegal immigrants and criminals. Yet about 3,000 of the villagers, who are mostly locals, are defying eviction. Their 200 wooden stilt houses surrounded by high-rise buildings which include luxurious hotels, shopping malls, shops and offices, are standing on a pot of gold in the heart of Kota Kinabalu. Land here fetches a premium. And the villagers are looking forward anxiously to another meeting with the Kota Kinabalu mayor on October 8 to resolve the problem. The first one ended without a definitive solution on September 21 but with City Hall and the Lands and Surveys Department saying that the villagers would not be evicted for now.

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Government

Malaysia’s most feared taxman is Kota Kinabalu mayor

Sabah Insights

Sabin Samitah’s job may be hampered as state election looms

Kota Kinabalu mayor Sabin Samitah (left) with Luyang lawmaker Ginger Phoong Jin Zhe – Picture courtesy of The Borneo Post

Seven years ago, the name Sabin Samitah struck fear in Malaysia’s corporate world. As chief executive officer of the Inland Revenue Board, he slapped companies and businessmen with multi-million-ringgit income tax bills and penalties for under declaring income as soon as he assumed office in December 2016. Among those he cracked down were the companies of former prime minister Mahathir Mohamed’s three sons, and property developer Lee Kim Yew, a close friend of Mahathir, who founded Country Heights Holdings Berhad. Then in October 2021, two months short of his five-year contract, he abruptly quit his job. In September that year he had slapped former prime minister Najib Razak with a RM1.7-billion tax bill which drew condemnations from Mr Najib who is serving a 12-year jail sentence for corruption and money laundering. The Ranau-born Mr Sabin, 63, has now become the seventh mayor of Kota Kinabalu. His appointment on new year’s day was understandably greeted with trepidation by those who know him. Yet he hasn’t said that he would go after ratepayers who owe the Dewan Bandaraya (city hall) about RM50m in council taxes. But he has set his sight on giving the state capital cleaner public toilets in three months.

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