Junz: Why give BN a second chance to surrender our resources?
KOTA KINABALU: Warisan vicepresident Datuk Junz Wong has urged Kimanis voters, especially fishermen not to repeat the mistake of voting BN.
In a statement yesterday, Wong who is also Sabah Minister of Agriculture and Food Industry said the new government has been working tirelessly since coming into power, to return what was surrendered by the previous BN administration.
Citing deep sea licences as an example, he said there is no reason fishermen should vote the very people who surrendered our rights.
“The previous BN state administration surrendered the power to BN federal administration to issue deep sea licenses for Vietnamese vessels to operate in Sabah water. As a result, local fishermen face a steady decline of catches because of illegal fishing and trawling activities destroying our seabed’s marine ecosystems.
“Now, the new Sabah government under the leadership of Datuk Seri Shafie Apdal has reached an understanding with the federal government, in which there will be no more deep sea licences issued without the approval of the state government.
“And today, not one single deep sea licence has been issued, in fact we have cancelled those have been caught fishing with illegal methods as well as inactive licence. Warisan Government is very serious in tackling illegal Vietnamese boats fishing in Sabah water,” said Wong.
Wong said the Special Cabinet Committee on the Malaysian Agreement 1963 has also agreed to return the power of issuing deep sea licences to Sabah. Credit to Sabah Chief Minister.
“So why give BN a second chance to surrender our rights, when Warisan has only just started the journey of reclaiming what rightfully Sabahans,” he asked.
The Warisan vice-president added that apart from deep sea licences, the state government has also made it a policy to sink every illegal foreign boats caught trespassing into our waters.
“We want to send a strong message to all foreign fishing vessels that the Sabah State Government means business when it comes to this issue as we are elected to protect our Sabah fishermen,” he said.
Wong called on all Kimanis voters in this by-election to send a strong message to all, that Sabahans will continue to give undivided supports to our Chief Minister to carry out restructuring and reforms to take back Sabah rights. belong