Datuk Seri Dr Jeffrey Kitingan, president of Sabah STAR and Member of Parliament for Keningau, has called on the federal government to address the historical imbalance in development funding allocation between Sabah, Sarawak, and Peninsular Malaysia in the upcoming Budget 2027. Speaking in Kota Kinabalu, Kitingan emphasized that a fairer distribution of federal resources is both a constitutional obligation and essential for the nation’s stability.

Kitingan highlighted that for decades, approximately 86% to 87% of federal development funds have been allocated to Peninsular Malaysia, while Sabah and Sarawak receive only about 12% to 15% combined each year. He noted that Sabah remains 30 to 40 years behind Peninsular Malaysia in terms of development, pointing to persistent gaps in infrastructure and economic opportunities in the state.

The Sabah STAR leader criticized the federal government’s funding approach, which treats Sabah and Sarawak as single entities against the eleven individual states of Peninsular Malaysia. He argued that this method overlooks the special constitutional status of the two Borneo states under the 1963 Malaysia Agreement. He further illustrated the scale of Sabah’s administrative regions by stating that the Keningau parliamentary constituency alone is larger than the combined area of Penang, Melaka, and Perlis.

Despite its large geographic size, Sabah continues to struggle economically and socially. It remains the poorest state in Malaysia and contains eight of the country’s ten poorest districts. Kitingan also pointed out that Sabah’s GDP per capita stands at less than half the national average. Many rural communities still depend on untreated gravity-fed water systems, demonstrating the infrastructure deficit facing the state.

To better address these disparities, Kitingan urged the federal government to tailor development funding based on factors such as land area, population needs, infrastructure backlogs, and economic contributions. He also pressed for the implementation of Sabah’s constitutional entitlement to 40% of the state’s net revenue starting from 2026. Regarding outstanding payments from previous years, he suggested that entitlements for the period between 1974 and 2021 be negotiable separately between the federal and state governments.

Kitingan stated that fulfilling these financial obligations would not only comply with the constitution but also provide Sabah with the necessary resources to improve its infrastructure, reduce poverty, stimulate economic growth, and enhance the welfare of its people. He called for an immediate halt to the accumulation of unpaid entitlements and the establishment of a transparent mechanism to ensure proper calculation and timely payment of Sabah’s revenue share in the future.