‘Sabah Maju Jaya’, and the courage to hope

I WAS in Kota Kinabalu on Friday (Jan 30) for work.

I dropped by at Menara Kinabalu.

As always, like most government buildings, it was designed to look magnificent and solid.

As I walked out, blinking in the heat, my eyes landed on that familiar sign outside:
‘Sabah Maju Jaya’.

Big, bold, unavoidable.

Tourists pose there. Civil servants rush past it. Taxi drivers idle nearby as if the motto is simply part of the scenery.

I did what tourists do – I posed for a photo too.

In my sneakers and backpack, I suddenly looked… very ‘maju’.

But this week, that slogan was no longer just a cheerful backdrop for selfies.

It became something heavier, more serious – a declaration of intent.

On the same day, Sabah’s Chief Minister Datuk Seri Panglima Hajiji Noor launched ‘Sabah Maju Jaya (SMJ) 2.0’, a five-year roadmap for the state from 2026 to 2030.

A plan to lift Sabah into a new chapter of competitiveness, productivity and economic value.

And somewhere between chasing signatures and reading press statements, I found myself thinking: ‘perhaps this week, I want to write not with cynicism… but with hope’.

It is a record budget, and a record of expectations.

SMJ 2.0 comes backed with Sabah’s biggest-ever state budget – RM12.02 billion.

That is not small money; not a small ambition.

We are told that it will finance more than a thousand development programmes, aligned with national plans, sustainability goals, and people’s wellbeing.

Sabahans, of course, have learned over many decades to smile politely at big announcements.

Yes, the world is shifting fast, and Sabah knows it.

What I find interesting in SMJ 2.0 are artificial intelligence (AI), digital trade and cross-border competition.

Sabah does not want to be left behind, watching others run ahead while we debate old problems.

The roadmap rests on four pillars: ‘Sabah First’, ‘Sabah Forward’, ‘Sabah Prosper’, and ‘Sabah United’.

And there are five objectives that sound almost obvious, yet deeply necessary: ‘Unity’, ‘State Revenue’, ‘Economic Diversification’, ‘People’s Economy’ and ‘Human Capital’.

In simpler terms: make Sabah stronger, fairer, more capable – and make sure ordinary people feel it.

One of the more striking targets is food security.

SMJ 2.0 wants Sabah’s rice self-sufficiency to rise from 30 per cent to 60 per cent by 2030.

There is something called a ‘Padi Revolution’.

Machinery. Modernisation. Biotechnology centres in Tuaran.

It seems not glamorous or headline-catching, but after the pandemic and after supply chain shocks, we have all learned something important – a place that can feed itself has a different kind of strength.

Perhaps the future is not only in digital dreams, but also in paddy fields.

Sabah knows it.

Under industry, tourism, agriculture and the sea between them, SMJ 2.0’s plan focuses on three growth sectors: industry, tourism, and agriculture.

Sabah has already attracted major investments including the Esteel project in Sipitang, worth tens of billions, promising thousands of jobs.

Industrial parks will expand.

Tourism, too, is recovering, with Visit Malaysia 2026 and Visit Sabah Year 2027 ahead.

There are allocations for heritage and cultural preservation – and I like that.

Because Sabah’s beauty is not only in Mount Kinabalu photographs; it is in living cultures, villages, dialects, festivals and marine parks – things that cannot be rebuilt once lost.

And then there is the repeated emphasis on the ‘Blue Economy’.

The sea appears several times in the roadmap.

Sabah has always been shaped by water: by coasts, islands, fisheries, and trade routes.

To see the sea framed not as an extractive frontier, but as a sustainable source of resilience, is both logical and quietly poetic.

Perhaps our future is not only on land.

Perhaps it is also in the waters surrounding us.

But plans do not succeed. People do.

No roadmap works without human beings walking the road.

SMJ 2.0 speaks of human capital: technical and vocational education and training (TVET), Science-Technology-Engineering-Mathematics (STEM), digital skills, and youth leadership.

Sabah’s Minister of Youth Development, Sports Advancement and Creative Economy Datuk Nizam Abu Bakar Titingan has spoken about future-ready Sabahans, disciplined and competitive.

That matters.

Sabah’s young people are talented. What they often lack are platforms, and reasons to stay.

Investing in education, skills, arts, sports, and creative economy is not charity.

It is how you build a society that does not export its children.

SMJ 2.0 also speaks of unity and harmony, of stability, of inclusive development.

And importantly, the leaders continue to mention Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63) and Sabah’s rights.

Any Sabahan knows that these issues are not abstract.

Autonomy, revenue, fair treatment – these are not political slogans; they are personal.

A development plan that ignores this would ring hollow.

Significantly, SMJ 2.0 signals that economic aspirations and constitutional rights must travel together.

Hope is not naïve. It is discipline.

It demands people to remember the figures, read the fine print, hold leaders accountable and participate in the plans in their respective ways.

We genuinely want Sabah to succeed.

If Sabah achieves what SMJ 2.0 promises; if roads improve; if broadband reaches the ‘kampungs’ (villages); if paddies thrive; if young people find good jobs without leaving home – then life here will be immeasurably better.

The challenges will be real: economic headwinds, climate change, federal-state tensions, the complexity of implementation.

But the motto outside Menara Kinabalu is not a lament, it is a command: ‘Sabah Maju Jaya’.

A plan is only a roadmap.

To travel it, we must start walking.

As I walked at ease up the stairs to board the plane at the airport two months after my spine injury, I whispered to myself: “It is good to believe again.”