Justification for Shafie to hold two posts ‘lame’ – Joniston

KOTA KINABALU: The reason given by Parti Warisan Sabah (Warisan) president Datuk Seri Shafie Apdal to justify his holding of two posts in the State Cabinet appears very lame, said Datuk Joniston Bangkuai.

The Kiulu assemblyman made the statement in regard to Shafie's reasoning that he needs to “clean up the mess” first in holding both the Chief Minister and Finance Minister portfolios.

“Shafie is shifting the blame to the Sabah Barisan Nasional government because he is under fire from within the alliance of convenience that he leads as those from PKR and DAP do not appear to be at ease with him holding the Finance portfolio and the Chief Ministership at the same time,” Joniston asserted in a statement yesterday.

“He is undermining the people's intelligence when he claimed he will only hold the post temporarily, and that he wants to clean up the mess as well as the lopsided deals left by the previous administration led by Tan Sri Musa Aman,” he added.

For the record, the Sabah Barisan Nasional government was given a clean bill by the Federal Auditor General for 16 consecutive years until 2016 while the Ram Ratings gave the state administration “AAA” rating for 7 consecutive years until 2017, Joniston said.

He also asserted that the Sabah Barisan Nasional government had presented surplus budget for four consecutive years from 2015 until this year, where the budget stood at RM4.1 billion with a surplus of RM65 million.

“The State Financial Reserves had also increased from RM184 million in 2002 to RM3.74 billion last year and for 16 consecutive years, the state recorded surplus in its annual consolidated revenue account until last year.