Sabah chief vows to bring changes

Sabah chief vows to bring changes

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuter): Sabah's newly appointed chief minister, Mohamed Salleh Said, yesterday pledged to rid Malaysia's north Borneo state of its money-and-timber politics image, and to get the economy moving.

"The image of money-and-timber politics should be discarded to convince the people of the government's desire to bring changes," Salleh was quoted as saying by the national Bernama news agency.

Sabah state, rich in oil and timber, has been labeled Malaysia's "Wild-East" due to its free-wheeling politics.

"It is an irony that Sabah has been mentioned as a rich state, but its people are poor. When the national poverty rate was 15.5 percent in 1993, Sabah's was 33.2 percent.

In Sabah state capital Kota Kinabalu on Tuesday, Salleh said he would aggressively implement the National Front coalition's programs during his 14-month term of office.