I refer to the recent statement by the Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) vice-president Radin Malleh concerning his allegations that the opposition only know how to make promises to the people who are in need of development in the state constituency of Moyog, and his optimism for PBS to win back Moyog if given the chance.

First of all, let me highlight it here that I have full respect towards Radin Malleh since he is one of the most vocal senior KadanDusunMurut (KDM) leaders who spoke consistently and fearlessly about Sabah’s rights and privileges at the national level.

And I took great pleasure in reading of all his previous speeches and debates which could easily be found in the Parliament’s Hansard.  

His consistency and honesty makes him far more respectable than some of the BN KDM leaders who are keen to tell the rakyat that they are fighting teeth and bone for the survival of the KDMs, but in reality never had the commitment to do so!    

However, while it is normal for some political party leaders to express his/her confidence on winning a seat (without even preparing a plan or strategy beforehand) with the sole intention of uplifting the morale of the few remaining party members, it is to my opinion that Radin had made several errors on this matter.

Firstly, Radin should have known it well that the people of Moyog have fiercely objected to the PBS presient’s insistence for the proposed Kaiduan Dam project in the interior of Moyog and this is manifested through Projek Bantah that had collected more than 2,000 signatures (mostly signed by young adults from Upper Moyog) over the course of two weeks.

Thus, come GE14, would PBS have any chances in Moyog after the insistence by the PBS president to the people of Penampang for continuous sacrifice despite having made way previously for the Babagon Dam and Kondundungan Oxidation Pond?

Secondly, GE13 had shown us the rejection by the KDM communities towards PBS when out of the 17 state assembly and parliamentary seats contested, it lost seven of its kubu kuat (Kota Kinabalu, Kadamaian, Api-Api, Tamparuli, Inanam, Matunggong and Sri Tanjung) and in several areas, only split votes (Kota Marudu, Keningau) or slim majority (Kiulu) saved PBS from total annihilation.

Thus, it is only natural for one to wonder why Radin is full of confidence on the prospect of PBS winning the Moyog seat in the coming GE14 when PBS has yet to fully re-established itself within its seven lost kubu kuat.

Or perhaps it would make more sense if Radin firstly supervises the re-establishment of these seven lost seats before venturing into Moyog?

As for Radin’s contention that the opposition only knows how to promise and will not be able to bring any development to the state constituency of Moyog, I beg to differ on this issue.

I stand to my belief that it is the role of the government of the day (which merely acts as a trustee to hold the state/federal consolidated funds raised using taxes and stamp duties collected from Malaysians) to disburse the development funds for any constituency in the state of Sabah.

Discriminatory system is prevalent

As the government of the day and holder of the consolidated funds (also known as the taxpayers monies), it is the duty of BN to ensure that various assistance or support from the government departments are also being channelled to the Moyog constituency and thus, Radin cannot be proud of BN’s exclusive power to disburse this taxpayers monies when at the same time, a discriminatory, inefficient and incompetent administrative system is prevalent in the state !   

Thus in this case, we in the opposition plays a vital part in ensuring that the administrative and governance system in the Moyog constituency is free from any discriminatory, inefficient and incompetent practices by continuing to highlight important issues which affects the people of Moyog, for instance the unregulated development which is rampant in the district.

However, it maybe also that Radin is speaking based on his previous experience when PBS itself was an opposition party from 1994 to 2001, but he should know well that there is a big difference between the opposition during that time and today!

And by the same token, it is purely unethical and immoral for any BN leaders to issue misleading information that, despite the people of Moyog equally paying taxes and stamp duties amounting to millions of ringgit to the BN government, no funds will be channelled into Moyog for development purposes just because the seat is being represented by an opposition representative!

I will continue to fight and highlight all the pertinent issues in Moyog constituency and I know that whatever I do or say now will be recorded for the future generations’ understanding.

Hopefully they in turn will know and stand up for what is right, irrespective of whether they are in the ruling government or otherwise.  

TERRENCE SIAMBUN is vice-chief of Sabah PKR and state assemblyperson for Moyog.