PKR REBUKES SABAH UMNO YOUTH

By : LUKE RINTOD

A senior Sabah Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) leader today hit out hard at Sabah UMNO Youth Head for claiming UMNO as being a responsible party, instead he alleged UMNO is the most irresponsible party for giving non-citizens MyKads and allowing them to infiltrate Sabah's electoral rolls (as proven in courts).

Daniel John Jambun, the PKR Coordinator for Inanam, said Azman Ruslan should reflect on why mass poverty has become a perpetual problem in Sabah, before asking PKR not to politicise poverty.

"He knows this poverty is prolonged because of bad political culture and corruption. Sabahans are poor because of corruption. Singapore has no natural resources but it is one of the richest countries in the world. Sabah has the richest resources in oil, gas, timber, fertile land, and yet the poorest under UMNO's rule," he said in a statement here today, rebutting Azman.

Azman had said in a statement carried by Bernama today that PKR should not politicise poverty in Sabah and should instead help alleviate the problem. He also claimed that UMNO is a responsible party and that is why many Sabahans have joined the party.

But Daniel, who is deputising Datuk Dr Jeffrey Kitingan in an NGO called CigMa or Common Interest Group Malaysia, alleged UMNO is far from being a responsible party, citing corruption among its leaders as example.

"There are many examples of UMNO being an irresponsible party but for the time being i would just cite few examples for Azman and the people to ponder. A former Sabah Chief Minister from UMNO gambled people's money in London casino to the tune of RM50 million, is this responsible?

"Senior ministers having fat bank account overseas, is this responsible? Is giving MyKads to illegal immigrants from Mindanao, Sulawesi and Java responsible?" he asked adding that the list of UMNO's wrongdoings in Sabah alone is very long and surely will be distributed to the rakyat at the right time soon.

On Azman's contention that PKR or Dr Jeffrey should instead help solve Sabah problems like the poverty, Daniel said the latter had helped by lodging various reports to police and MACC on alleged corruption, but the UMNO-led government is either very slow in acting on them or have dismissed them as ‘no case’.

The roots of our problems like mass poverty is corruption. Malaysia is such in a mess because of corruption. In 1967, our one dollar is equivalent to a Singapore dollar, but now a Singapore dollar is equivalent to RM2.50. Likewise the Brunei dollar have appreciated against our ringgit.

"Singapore has no UMNO, it is the least-corrupted country in the world and that is why it is so developed though it has no resources besides human resources," he said adding that one can imagine resource-rich Sabah could have done better than Singapore if it has its own way.