Opposition starting to learn to be ‘good opposition’ – Darell
PENAMPANG: Parti Warisan Sabah (Warisan) deputy president Darell Leiking is happy to see that the opposition have now started to learn how to be a ‘good opposition’ side.
He made the rather sarcastic remark in reference to the criticisms that his party president cum Chief Minister Datuk Seri Shafie Apdal had been facing of late.
“They are learning on how to be a good opposition. This is very good for them. It is their duty now to keep us on our toes. It is good that they have started learning on how to be a good opposition.
“I was in the opposition for five years. So I hope they will learn what I have learned,” he quipped.
Among some of the criticisms that Darell had touched on was the one concerning Shafie’s statement on the state’s reserves at the State Assembly sitting, whereby the latter had mentioned that Sabah had RM3.305 billion.
This was met by criticisms from the opposition, among them being Apas assemblyman Datuk Nizam Abu Bakar Titingan, who alleged that Shafie had initially claimed that the state was suffering financially (when Shafie was still in the opposition).
“Surely, the opposition, who were in the know on how much money and reserves we had, should tell the truth on what actually happened with the state’s fiscal position.
“So the Chief Minister has already openly said that we had that kind (amount) of reserves, but at the same time we also have our own debts to the Federal Government, which is around RM3.9 billion if I am not mistaken,” the Penampang MP said when met by reporters at the launching of the Kepayan Warisan service centre on Saturday.
Although Darell has yet to speak with Shafie on the said issue, he is nevertheless confident that the latter ‘knows what he is talking about’.
As for the criticisms on the Tanjung Aru Eco Development (TAED) project, Darell said that he was unsure as to what the actual plan is.
The State Government recently came under fire as it was accused of backtracking from its preelection promise of completely scrapping of the TAED project. However, it had recently hinted that the project might be downsized instead.
According to Darell’s understanding, what the government intends to do is to improve some of the sites at Tanjung Aru Beach and to also reduce the acreage, a proposal that the people had been asking for all this while.
“If they reduce the acreage, maybe this could be for the benefit of the people. Who knows? Maybe this is not the same TAED project we told about (during Barisan Nasional’s reign).
“This is something different. Let us give the Chief Minister some time. Maybe if he sees something in doing it could mean that it would be different from what was proposed by the private contractors and government before,” said Darell who was recently appointed as the Federal Minister of International Trade and Industry.