By Queville To
KOTA KINABALU: Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) has come under criticism from the opposition for its incoherent stand on various issues affecting the state.
The BN component party has been ridiculed for making rhetorical and theatrical statements to cover up its incompetence in resolving many issues affecting Sabah and its people.
Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) Youth wing chief, Edward Dagul, said the recent statements by PBS leaders on illegal immigrants were disjointed and exposed as empty rhetoric.
When PBS was in the opposition, leaders like Yee Moh Chai, Radin Malleh, Chong Eng Leong made it their purpose to fight Barisan Nasional (BN) and Umno to the extent of calling for a Royal Commission of Inquiry on the issue of illegal immigrants, said Dagul.
He said people still remember that PBS even accused BN and Umno of using illegal immigrants as phantom voters to win elections.
"However, when PBS returned to BN, Yee, Radin and others have been conspicuously silent on the issue as if it no longer exists.
"But Chong continued to harp on the issue, only to be given a stern warning by Johnny Mositun, the PBS information chief...
“Now, PBS is again championing the issue. This hot-and-cold treatment of the issue by leaders of PBS is ample proof that they are not serious in ridding Sabah of this problem.
"When it suits them, these same leaders will dangle it to Umno’s face till it gets what it wants, in this particular case, power sharing within the BN coalition and equal access to economic opportunities and so on,” Dagul said.
Such a PBS modus operandi was done at the people’s expense, he said.
Perennial problem
Another case, he said, is the the controversial Tambatuon Dam project in Kadamaian which comes under the jurisdiction of PBS to whom the people there have been crying out for assistance.
“Will PBS fight for the rights of the Kadamaian folk in ensuring that this proposed dam is cancelled, instead of clamouring for positions in the government and begging for slices of the economic cake?”
He said one of the main reasons PBS returned to the BN fold eight years ago was that it thought only the BN could solve the illegal immigrants issue.
“But eight years on, this perennial problem is still around. Even Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Idris Jala, has said the matter is not a priority...
“What can one say if they (PBS leaders) cannot convince the federal government that this issue is of national importance and should have been included in National Key Results Area (NKRA) in the first place?”
He said PBS leaders like Henrynus, deputy president Maximus Ongkili who is also a federal minister and other ministers from Sabah should take full responsibility for not seeing to it that the issue is included in the NKRA.
