Admit PH, Warisan’s failures on SESB – PBS

Mandut

KOTA KINABALU: Warisan-led State Government should stop playing the blaming game and admit its failure in providing sustainable power supply to the people in Sabah.

“The Sabah caretaker Chief Minister (Datuk Seri Shafie Apdal) should stop telling fake stories. Stick to the facts. Just admit that your administration failed to show its capability that it could manage power and energy for the people of Sabah,” said Christoper Mandut, the Political Secretary to the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Sabah and Sarawak Affairs) Datuk Seri Dr Maximus Ongkili.

In fact, Mandut added that since Parti Warisan took the helm of the state administration, it had not shown any of its capability to ensure sufficient, stable, and affordable pricing of electricity for Sabahans.

Saying Shafie’s claim that the return of utility company Sabah Electricity Sdn Bhd (SESB) was disrupted after Perikatan Nasional (PN) took over power at the federal level was baseless, he said negotiation on the matter was already on-going prior to the 14th general election in 2018.

He further explained that the then Barisan Nasional federal cabinet, of which Ongkili was a member as the Energy, Green Technology and Water Minister, decided at the cabinet meeting just about a month before GE14 to return SESB to the Sabah government under the Malaysia Agreement 1963 action plan.

“He (Ongkili) was then to follow up on the matter to ensure the decision was implemented when the election was over.  Unfortunately, BN lost the election,” he said.

The Parti Bersatu Sabah Youth chief claimed that for the last two years, there was hardly any action taken by the Pakatan Harapan and Warisan governments, which were under the leadership of former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Shafie.

“No concrete action taken, talk only. During that period, he (Ongkili) was even consulted privately in his personal capacity by officers in the Sabah Economic Planning Unit (EPU) and SESB to get input on what BN’s plans and strategies were for eventual handover,” Mandut claimed.

So, he added that it was untrue that it was the PH government who decided to handover.

“In fact, the BN government was the one who made the decision to hand over, and in actual fact, it was the PH government who did not do anything to pursue the matter of handing over.

“Further, it is untrue that the current Federal government has put it on hold. The fact is that the Federal government is still waiting for further details from the state on matters pertaining to costing, financial capacity of the state and action on required laws needed to be put in place in order for electricity matters to be in the hands of the state.

“And, with all the political instability in Sabah over the last six months, the Federal government has stated that further evidence is required to prove the capacity of the State government to take over the assets and management of SESB for the people of Sabah,” Mandut added.

In a recent statement, Shafie blamed the return of SESB was disrupted after Perikatan Nasional (PN) took over power at the federal level, but it was disrupted when PH took over Putrajaya.

 

The post Admit PH, Warisan’s failures on SESB – PBS appeared first on Borneo Post Online.

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