Joke sparks argument
KOTA KINABALU: What started out as a joke by Sulaman assemblyman Datuk Hajiji Haji Noor escalated into a heated argument between him and Deputy Chief Minister cum Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Madius Tangau at the State legislative assembly yesterday.
“I have additional question(s) to my friend who ran to the other side,” said Hajiji when posing the question to Madius during the question and answer session.
He then proceeded to elaborate his question but was quickly interrupted by Sabah assembly deputy speaker Ahmad Abdul Rahman who urged Hajiji to abstain from mentioning matters that have already transpired in order to avoid unwanted incidents.
However, Hajiji interjected, “Boleh bah sikit-sikit. Sikit-sikit boleh.”
He proceeded with his comment again, stating that he was not confident that Madius’ ministry could achieve the target of 600,000 jobs created by the year 2023.
“My question is I feel this is hard to achieve from now to 2023. Because I feel this is yet another ‘terang bulan’ promise by the government or by the Deputy Chief Minister,” he said.
When asked to clarify whether he meant if the target was difficult to achieve, Hajiji said, “My question is: Is this another promise that is ‘indah khabar dari rupa’ from the government?”
The speaker then told him that some of those at the august House do not understand that ‘pantun’, to which Hajiji replied that Madius could explain it.
“This is used by politicians and others. I am afraid this target is just to appease the hearts of the people,” said Hajiji.
Madius then argued that he did not run away.
“Firstly, I did not run away. But perhaps by taking this move, Umno can go back to West Malaysia,” he replied to Hajiji.
Hajiji hotly interjected that Madius has no right to speak of Umno that way, stating that it was through Umno that he won the Tuaran seat.
Others who joined in the debate were Apas assemblyman Datuk Nizam Abu Bakar Titingan who accused the speaker of being biased, and Pitas assemblyman Datuk Bolkiah Ismail who urged those at the house to focus on the issues discussed and not on the issue of who won and lost (in the election) which was irrelevant.
Hajiji then told Bolkiah, also a former Umno member, to shut up.
The speaker also warned Hajiji not to try his patience when the latter refused to stop his argument.
He said that if they wanted to argue, they could do it outside the house and not with him around.
Madius then went on to explain that the 600,000 jobs creation target was part of his ministry’s key performance index and were not promises but were based on research of growth of the small and medium industries by 5.5 percent to 5.7 percent annually.
He mentioned prior to the flare up that in 2016, Sabah had 451,000 jobs available, and based on the estimation, the number of jobs to be created annually is between 25,000 and 26,000 if not compounded.