Warisan fears SESB may be sold to foreigners

KOTA KINABALU: Parti Warisan Sabah deputy president Darrel Leiking was shocked over a report that loss-making Sabah Electricity Sdn Bhd (SESB) is on the verge of insolvency.

“I am shocked to hear that a once well-known pride of Sabah is on the verge of insolvency.

“The Chief Minister and the state government must not wait any more and should have been now negotiating with TNB (Tenaga National Berhad) to become the major shareholder of that company,” he said in a statement yesterday.

Leiking said he feared that with the current policy of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak in relation to government-linked or owned corporation, SESB might end up in the hands of foreign investors.

“What I fear the most is that SESB may end up sold to foreigners the same way as the Sabah Forest Industries (SFI) was. This is not impossible because if Najib Razak never hesitated to sell Proton, what more SESB.

“If that happens, then how will be the future of thousands of our Sabahans currently working or doing contractual works for the corporation?” he asked.

Leiking also demanded the Federal Minister of Energy, Green Technology and Water Datuk Dr Maximus Ongkili to tell Sabahans what the future of SESB will be.

“It could be that the federal government and TNB came out with the report to justify an increase of electricity tariff here in Sabah.

“So it is the responsibility of Max Ongkili to tell us what he knows about the whole thing and what his plans are so that he will be able to protect Sabahans, particularly those from the low and medium earners during this hard time,” he said.

Leiking also said Warisan would take over SESB once the party was given the mandate by Sabahans to form the new government.

“TNB is a corporation for profit so in their eyes, SESB is unable to make any profit for them, while the federal government thinks it cannot ‘milk’ SESB.

“Then there should be no problem on the part of our state government to buy a stake in SESB.

“Sarawak state government through its GLC Sarawak Energy Berhad (SEB) has been running/ supplying power for a long time and has been managing without TNB.

“Warisan intends to rejuvenate SESB and we will navigate SESB to become a state government’s GLC that will be entrusted to generate continuous energy and massive economic investment from outside, including to set up a government commission that will monitor as well as deal with all matters pertaining to SESB,” he added.