Accusation shows Ongkili still unable to accept change — Masudal
KOTA KINABALU: Parti Warisan Sabah (Warisan) has slammed Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) acting president Datuk Seri Dr Maximus Ongkili on his accusation that nothing new or beneficial had been done by the Warisan within 60 days of the party’s governance.
Christopher Masudal, who is the Special Officer to Warisan deputy president Darell Leiking, said the accusation made by Ongkili clearly showed his inability to accept the changes for the betterment of the Sabahans that is slowly happening in the State.
“Ongkili claimed that nothing new or beneficial had been done by Warisan within these 60 days but how can that be when immediately after forming the State Government, Warisan had established the State Education Ministry despite earlier scoffing by the former chief minister, Tan Sri Musa Aman and former assistant finance minister, Ramlee Marhaban."
Masudal contended that through the State Education Ministry, Sabah would see equal distribution of funds to assist the Chinese, English and Malay-medium schools in the State while the proposal to convert the Tawau and Keningau Teacher’s Training Institutes as vocational and polytechnic institutes during the BN administration and received much objection by the Sabahans would be scrapped and both facilities should be retained as teacher’s training institutes.
“I now ask Ongkili, isn’t the creation of this ministry new and what it proposes to do benefit the State?” he said in a statement yesterday.
Masudal also demanded Ongkili to explain in detail what he meant that the new State Government had damaged the State and withdrawn assistance that benefited the people.
“The State Government is made up of a coalition of political parties and all the State ministries are being headed by leaders from Warisan, PH and Upko, hence I want Ongkili to explain it in detail how this new State Government had damaged the State or withdrawn assistance meant for the Sabahans,” he said.
He also took a swipe at Ongkili with his accusation that the new State Government was doing nothing and only disturbing policy decisions that benefited the people.
“Ongkili must understand that the reason why Sabahans rejected BN Sabah in GE14 is due to the very same policy decisions made by BN that he claimed to be beneficial but caused much dissatisfaction and resentment within the people for instance, the awarding of communal title to the natives Sabahans amongst others.”
He pointed out that as for the regulation of illegal immigrants in Sabah as proposed by the State Government, perhaps Ongkili might have forgotten it that in 2011, a 12-strong member team from PBS had expressed their support to the effort to document all the illegal immigrants in Sabah through the usage of biometric system so as to prevent them from obtaining fake IDs as their fingerprints would be centralized.
“PBS had also stated its stand on the issue clearly; PBS is not anti-foreign workers and in fact, the party welcomed them because it understood the need to have these labourers to fuel industries in Sabah provided that these foreign workers were being properly documented and should never be allowed to become citizens.
“So, what difference is it with what the State Government is trying to do now and what PBS wanted? asked Masudal.
“We want to catalogue and regulate the illegal immigrants in Sabah in almost the same way as how PBS had wanted it to be, that is, by using biometric system for the purpose of fueling our industries while at the same time to prevent them from becoming citizens of Malaysia and yet we have Ongkili telling the Sabahans that what Warisan intends to do is hampering development in the State,” he explained.
“So perhaps it would be a wise decision for the remaining PBS members to ditch the party and join Warisan and partake in the reconstruction and rebuilding of Sabah as what their former colleagues are now doing in Warisan.
“There is nothing much that you can expect from PBS within this five years more so when PBS’s former political master Umno is no longer the dominant political party in Malaysia,” Masudal concluded.