KOTA KINABALU, APRIL 24, 2025: Sabah Finance minister Datuk Seri Masidi Manjun during the Sabah Renewable Energy Conference 2025 at a hotel here. Photo courtesy of Sabah Chief Minister's office.
KOTA KINABALU: Sabah does not regret its choice of choosing “monkeys” over “gold” after 25 years.
State Finance Minister Datuk Seri Masidi Manjun said that the then-government had opted not to exploit coal in those days to keep Sabah green. “Today, one of the reasons why our tourism industry is doing so well is simply because we have opted to keep the monkeys instead of taking the gold. “Tourism is the new gold. In tourism, over 95 per cent of all those engaged in tourism are Sabahans. “You compare that to other sectors. Look at the plantation, 80 per cent of the workers are Indonesians, the construction sector has 70 per cent Filipinos,” he told the media after the opening of the Sabah Renewable Energy Conference 2025 at a hotel here. In 2000, the late Tun Lim Keng Yaik, who was then the Primary Industries Minister, had used the metaphor “monkeys or gold?” to question Sabah over its decision to keep the Maliau Basin intact despite an estimated 200 million tons of coal deposit being found beneath the 130-million-year-old forest reserve. Masidi, who used the metaphor to describe Sabah’s sustainability approach during his speech, clarified that Lim meant well to remind Sabah to use coal in order to solve developmental issues in the state. Earlier, in 1992, an Environmental Impact Analysis report had stated that mining coal at the Maliau Basin would definitely destroy the area. Maliau Basin is gazetted as a First Class Protected Forest Reserve. Today, it has earned the reputation as “The Lost World”. He also said that even now Sabah should still avoid going for coal for power generation, despite the state facing a low electricity reserve of 12.4 per cent at the moment. “When you talk about sustainability, you need to sacrifice something that can actually be good for the state, but we need to look long term.” Masidi said the state government is on track to increase electricity capacity, which includes continuous discussions with Tenaga Nasional Berhad, which owns major stakes in Sabah Electricity Bhd. Acknowledging the inevitably depleting fuel resources, including natural gas in Sabah, he said that it is essential to optimise and look for alternative sustainable resources, including the new Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion technology. At present, Sabah is mainly using natural gas (86pc), Diesel (7pc), hydropower (5pc) and 1 per cent each for Solar and Biomass.
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