Sabah Foundation
Tun Mustapha Tower, Sabah Foundation headquarters in aerial view.
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| Type | Governmental organisation |
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| Purpose | Developmental, education, culture, and social advancement |
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| Coordinates | 6°1′2″N 116°6′34″E / 6.01722°N 116.10944°ECoordinates: 6°1′2″N 116°6′34″E / 6.01722°N 116.10944°E |
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Region served
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Sabah |
| Website | www |
The Sabah Foundation (Malay: Yayasan Sabah) or Yayasan Sabah Group (YSG) is a state sanctioned organisation that was developed to promote educational and economic opportunities for its people. It was founded by Tun Mustapha Harun and manages a diverse portfolio of resources and issues.
The Kota Kinabalu-based think-tank was allowed to be established by 1966 Sabah State Legislative Assembly Enactment No. 8. The foundation was created in 1966 by Tun Mustapha Harun create educational opportunities for the country's Malaysian people. Four years later its scope was expanded to include economic and social advancement. It also coordinates distribution of resources in the event of a natural disaster to those in need. It was Tun Mustapa Harun's further goal "to promote Malayisation consciousness amongst the people of Sabah."
In 1967, coinciding with the formation of the Sabah Foundation, the Ministry of Natural Resources was abolished. The government gave the foundation 3,300 acres of land and a grant of 1 million ringgit to fund the start-up of the organisation. In 1970, Sabah Foundation was tasked, through a 100-year lease, of managing the 855,000 hectares of virgin forest. Nineteen years later their total holdings were 1.07 million hectares. Sabah's total land area is 7.4 million hectacres. Tun Mustapha withheld earnings is should have paid to the state and used the fund for political purposes, providing proceeds to the electorate and to support his political associates.
Harold Crouch wrote of Tun Mustapha's resulting political power:
...only in Sabah during the rule of Tun Mustapha (from 1967 to 1975) were violations of democratic practices so flagrant that elections lost their meaning. When Sabah participated for the first time in a national election in 1969, opposition candidates managed to file nominations in only six of the sixteen constituencies, the rest being disqualified for one reason or another. In 1974 only one opposition candidate succeeded in being nominated. The leaders of an opposition party were said to have been bribed to abandon their challenge while supporters of another party, the peninsula-based Pekemas, were physically intimidated by Mustapha's men.
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Wikipedia