Isnaraissah Munirah, MP for Kota Belud, said Sabah’s contribution to the country’s gross domestic product last year was 10.2% or RM136 billion. The country’s GDP was RM1.34 trillion.

Sabah, however, was allocated RM5.2 billion in the 2022 budget tabled on Friday.

Isnaraissah said it seemed that Sabah was being treated as a “stepchild” by the Keluarga Malaysia administration, referring to the Malaysian Family concept the current government espouses.

“How can the ‘family’ only set aside RM5.2 billion, or 6.8% of the total allocated, for Sabah’s development funds when it earns billions from the state,” she said in the budget debate at the Dewan Rakyat today.

She also said that according to the Federal Constitution, the East Malaysian state should receive two-fifths of the “net revenue derived by the Federation from Sabah.”

By her calculations, Isnaraissah said, the state should have been allocated RM54 billion, and the RM5.2 billion budget allocation was too small an amount which did not reflect the state’s contribution.

“This hurts us as it seems we are not part of the ‘family’. Why does it seem as if we are neglected?”

Isnaraissah is the latest Sabahan leader to criticise the budget.

Perikatan Nasional deputy chairman Jeffrey Kitingan said the budget made no mention of special financial provisions for Sabah, adding that the state’s constitutional right to 40% of the net revenue derived from the state by the federal government was still being denied.

Sabah deputy chief minister Bung Moktar Radin also described the allocation as insufficient given the sheer size of the state and the various infrastructure that needed to be improved.