By Queville To
KOTA KINABALU: The spate of calls for resignations and declarations of responsibility in the state may be the start of a new era of transparency and accountability.
But some are not amused and view the powerful statements by government politicians as playing to the gallery, being irresponsible and juvenile.
Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) is among them. It wants, both cabinet ministers and civil servants in the state, to stop the ‘blame game’ and to get on with their work.
“It does not benefit the people when ministers blame public servants while the public servants complain privately. Ordinary people know what is happening,” warned SAPP president Yong Teck Lee this week.
He was referring to the recent statements made by state Barisan Nasional leaders calling for the resignation of the managing director of the Sabah Electricity Sdn Bhd (SESB), Baharin Din and the mud-slinging between component parties leaders.
Yong noted that when the State Resource Development and Information Technology Minister Dr Yee Moh Chai called on Baharin to resign, the issue of ministerial responsibility also arose. Yee had called on SESB chief to resign over the commissioning of second-hand electricity generators for use on the state's east coast.
“Yee forgets that he is a minister. By openly calling on the managing director to resign, the minister has relinquished the responsibility to a public servant because he wants to wash his hands off the issue.
"Since SESB is not under his purview. He has clearly overstepped his ministerial responsibilities.
"It would be like the Infrastructure Minister Joseph Pairin or the federal minister for energy, Peter Chin Fah Kui, calling on the state Director of Human Resources to resign for failing the thousands of unemployed young Sabahans now begging for food in the streets of Kuala Lumpur. That responsibility falls on the Ministry of IT and Resources Development under Yee,” Yong pointed.
“Can a minister call on the Sabah Medical Services director to resign for the loss of the general hospital? Why was nobody asked to resign for failing to address the illegal immigrant crisis in Sabah?
"How about land-grab issues? Who should resign? The two Sabahans abducted from Pulau Sebangkat more that a month ago are still missing. This abduction happened soon after the security advisory from the American embassy in Kuala Lumpur.
"Should the security chiefs or the Minister of Defence or Home Affairs resign? Should the Chief Minister cum chairman of the State Security Council, who had earlier rebuked the American embassy and guaranteed the safety of tourists and citizens at the islands, resign?” asked Yong, former chief minister of the state.
He noted that so far, the only minister who has offered to resign is the federal minister for energy, Peter Chin Fah Kui, if his key national result standard of 700 minutes power interruption for Sabah per year is not achieved by end of this year.
Grassroots dissatisfaction
On the mudslinging between state BN leaders, Yong said that it was a clear indication that they were all for themselves.
He cited for example, last week, a PBS leader Chin Tek Ming publicly challenging Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) deputy president Chin Su Phin to ask LDP president VK Liew and vice-president Peter Pang to resign their posts as federal deputy minister and Sabah deputy chief minister respectively for failing to bring up grassroots dissatisfactions with Chief Minister Musa Aman.
Chin Tek Ming had asked Chin Su Phin to propose that LDP vacate all responsibilities and let other BN parties, like PBS, take charge.
Chin had bragged that it was because of grassroots dissatisfaction that he and other leaders from PBS and not LDP were appointed people development leaders for Luyang and Likas.
Last week, deputy speaker Johnny Mositun who is also PBS information chief called on fellow component party PBRS to dissolve and join PBS so that PBRS leaders can be given posts in the government.
