I refer to Malaysiakini article ‘Battle royale in Sabah media on power options’ .

The continued power shortage in Sabah has brought much hardship to ordinary Sabahans, investors and businessmen. It is common knowledge that the root cause is insufficient generating capacity; continue reliance on old diesel generating sets that breaks down often and also an inefficient distribution network.

One may ask why Sabah power utility has degenerated to this sore state of affair. After all, Sabah BN has been in power for the last 15 years. For this, Sabah BN must be must be answerable to the people.

I am indeed surprised that Chief Minister Musa Aman kept so quiet during this period. Is he not bothered with the people’s hardship and Sabah lack of investors due to insufficient power in the state? Or he is too busy counting his wealth? What about the four federal ministers from Sabah? Maybe they have got what they want in the last cabinet reshuffle and there is no need to make noise anymore.

Sabah Electricity Sdn Bhd (SESB) and the parent company Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB) must be held responsible for Sabah power woes. If key personnel of government-linked companies (GLC) getting big fat salaries and benefits fail to perform, action must be taken to remove them.

Therefore, Sabahans has the right to demand the state and federal government to sack SESB board of directors and let other more capable people to do the job. TNB chairman Leo Moggie, president and CEO Che Khalib Mohamad Noh and SESB managing director Baharin Din are the culprit of Sabah power woes.

How about the MP for Kinabatangan who is the deputy chairman of SESB? What has he done to alleviate the power shortage in Sabah? Some people says he hardly attend the SESB board meeting.

Renting and sale of generators is a big business in Sabah. Factories, hotels, commercial centre and a whole lot other businesses need to have standby generators. SESB themselves has to buy and rent a lot of generating sets. So who is benefitting from the sales and rental of generators? Are SESB staff and local politicians involved? Maybe Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission should investigate.

Finally, I hope the PM will do something to SESB and TNB before his key performance indicators (KPI) becomes a laughing talk.