By Charlie Rudai - Free Malaysia TodayKOTA KINABALU: The state BN is feeling the heat from a sustained barrage of flak from the opposition over its mis-management of Sabah.
BN coalition member, Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS), has been sufficiently goaded to respond to what it calls "bombing" by the Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP).
PBS claims that all the uncomfortable government deals exposed by SAPP were "old issues".
“Yong (Teck Lee, SAPP president) is issuing misleading statements on old issues to discredit Joseph Pairin Kitingan and the state government," PBS' Johnny Mositun said Monday.
He said SAPP is digging up these old issues to discredit the BN government because it lacks an original platform.
In doing so, SAPP has also presented these issues in a misleading light, especially where they bring to fore the matter of guilt by association, added Mositun.
"He (Yong) is conveniently ignoring the fact that in all instances he was a senior member of the administration and privy to all that went on.
"Why didn’t he speak up then if he felt strongly about these issues?” he asked.
Mositun who is also the deputy speaker was responding to Yong’s recent comments on the sale of Sabah Forest Industries (SFI) 17 years ago and a minerals prospecting license issued by Pairin to an Australian firm that covered several parts of Sabah including the now protected Maliau Basin.
'Deal approved by Bank Negara'
Embarrassed by the exposures of deals, the PBS government and Pairin when he was chief minister of the state from 1985 to 1994, Mositun said there was nothing questionable about the sale of SFI as the agency was not performing up to expectations at that time.
“We must remember that both the state and federal governments then were well into a nationwide privatisation programme for obvious reasons.
"Government-owned assets were being privatised as part of a systematic and carefully considered agenda to relieve the government of unnecessary financial and operational costs through collaboration with reliable private sector partners.
"The deal was also vetted and approved by the Securities Commission and Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM),” said Mositun.
He said at the time of Lion Group's acquisition of a majority stake in SFI, it was a legitimate and profitable Malaysian corporate giant, but in subsequent years two major economic recessions occurred and the company was forced to undergo a major restructuring exercise.
This resulted in India’s Ballapur Group acquiring the Lion Group’s shares in SFI.
Mositun noted that the state government’s equity in SFI remains intact and that SFI under the Ballapur Group’s management was performing well.
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