Warisan raises issues based on reality — Rep
KOTA KINABALU: A Warisan elected assemblyman has defended his party and president who were accused of “constructively spreading political untruths” to smear the Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) and Pakatan Harapan-led state government.
Elopura assemblyman Calvin Chong Ket Kiun said the opposition raised issues based on reality and the true situation faced by the people in the state .
He said Warisan was highlighting the problems people faced daily, including serious water shortages, incessant power cuts, and bad road conditions across the state.
These issues needed to be addressed, he said in response to Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor’s accusation that Warisan and its president, Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal, were spreading untruths to put the GRS state government in a bad light.
Chong, who is a Warisan supreme council member, said that Hajiji’s attack against Warisan was akin to shooting himself in the foot.
“Warisan is only talking about facts that are already known to all the people in Sabah,” he said in a statement Sunday.
Chong added Shafie was not wrong to say that the GRS state government had failed to resolve key issues facing the state as people continued to struggle to obtain basic needs.
He said an example of this is the issue of salt water supply in Sandakan which greatly affects the people in the district including his constituency.
“The people in Sandakan had to endure the problem for about a year. They are forced to buy mineral water for daily use, in addition to the health implications for poor families who cannot afford mineral water.
“As a representative of the people, I continued to press the State Government until I brought a sample of the water that the people of Sandakan drank to the State Assembly simply to urge immediate action from the State Government to solve the problem.
“Not only that, the problem of lack of beds at the Duchess Of Kent Hospital is still not solved by the government,” he said.
Chong reminded Hajiji that he has no right to criticise Warisan because Warisan only states facts and statements and conveys the voice of the people.
“It is not fraud or slander. It is true that the government has failed. Hajiji can only call the statement ‘slanderous’ after he has resolved three major issues - roads, electricity and water supply in Sabah,” he added.
On Saturday, Hajiji said the political spins by Warisan were aimed at painting a picture to humiliate the GRS-PH government as a failure.
Hajiji said that Shafie was ignoring the facts about what the government was doing and spreading untruths to slander the state government.