Sri Tanjong rep says no to MoU with GRS govt
Sri Tanjong assemblyman Justin Wong said he is opposed to signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) government.
“To set the record straight, I never aspired to sign any form of ceasefire agreement with the current government.
“In fact, I was never involved in the negotiation with the current Chief Minister Datuk Seri Panglima Hajiji,” he said in a statement yesterday.
“I opined that all opposition MLA (members of legislative assembly) should continue discharging our responsibilities as ‘genuine’ opposition lawmakers, which is to hold the government accountable and exercise duty of check and balance, making sure that all promises in their manifesto that are beneficial to rakyat are implemented,” he said.
“That is supposed to be the real function of a responsible opposition YB,” he added.
Justin said he does not agree the situation in Sabah is akin to national political spectrum, as the Bersatu-led government controlled the majority of the seats in Sabah, signifying their administration is solid as rock.
On the contrary, he said the signing of MoU at the federal level was due to slim majority of seats for the government bloc and the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri needed to resort to getting support from Pakatan Harapan to maintain political stability and heed advice from the Yang di-Pertuan Agong.
“In my humble opinion as a first-term MLA, the fundamental role of an opposition is to scrutinise and criticise, when necessary, the government of the day. Since they were elected by the people, they should be doing the reform and implementing people-oriented policies.
“When we are talking about reform, the work should be done voluntarily and not being bound by any MoU or instrument. The agreement is always between the rakyat, not with any political party.
“I want to question the current federal government, whether or not the MoU is now null and void after the Malacca incident, that saw some MLA from Umno and Bersatu jump over and triggered a snap poll which was concluded recently,” said Justin.
He added Pakatan Harapan suffered huge loss in that election and talks about PH leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim should step down resurfaced.
“Since Malacca Umno and Bersatu MLA breached the MoU first, then why Sabah MLA should continue pursuing this?” he asked.
What more, he said the Budget 2022 tabled by Finance Minister Tengku Zafrul Tengku Aziz did not include most of the reform proposals made by PH.
“As such, since we have not signed any agreement, then we still have a choice, that is not to take up this short-term interest. Our focus should be winning the next election by first giving our best service to the rakyat,” he said.