Stop making Mahathir scapegoat, PBS is told

KOTA KINABALU: Sabah's economic position might be better today had there been political honesty and honour in Tan Sri Joseph Pairin Kitingan and Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) during the party's nine-year rule.

Pantai Manis Umno Chief Datuk Abdul Rahim Ismail claimed PBS failed to produce a creditable economic plan or management and that Sabah's economic fairs were conducted on a day-to-day basis.

"Nobody knew what was coming or going. In other words. Sabah under
PBS, at best, was just muddling through. Under this sort of environment. it was not surprising that the RM12.5 billion reserve accumulated by Datuk Harris Salleh was soon gone and by the time Pairin stepped down, there was a deficit of acre than RM12.5 billion, a swing of RM5 billion," he said, in a statement, Sunday.

Referring to the report in the Daily Express on April 1 under the headline "Sabah Suffered Much Under Mahathir: PBS", Rahim said a more appropriate headline would be "Sabah Suffered Much Under Pairin".

In the first instance, he said Pairin should have recognised that he and PBS were and up to this day not "national political material".

"Put it bluntly, he should not have tried to indulge in the 'Big Boy' game of national politics. By playing Dr Mahathir against Tengku Razaleigh and vice versa and pulling out of BN at the last minute before the 1990 General election, the true colours of Pairin and PBS were revealed.

Having done the 'Brutus' on Dr Mahathir and Umno, how cann PBS expect Dr Mahathir to invite them to a VIP banquet? As they say, the rest is history," he said.

After the election, Pairin tried to perpetuate his own political ambition and PBS' rule by exploiting the "Anti West Malaysian and Federal Government sentiments" among Sabahans.

"A leopard cannnot change its spots. PBS reneged on a pre-election agreement cooperation with Tun Mustapha/Usno immediately after the 1985 State Election, when they had learned they had won sufficient number of seats to form the Government," he said.

Rahim said while they were creating a messy political situation, the worst was yet to come in the economic front, the repercussions of which would burden Sabahans up to this day and for a long time to come.

"For reasons best known to Pairin, a 'Sabah cheap sale' was started.

"Assets belonging to Sabah that were worth selling had been sold, the big majority, of which to non-Sabahans and public-listed companies.

"Likewise, many so-called JVs at terms highly unfavourable to Sabah were entered into with non-Sabahan companies," he said.

Rahim named them, among others, Rekas Halus, Sabah Gas Industries, Sabah Forest Industries, Sapi Plantation, Asia City, Cathay Cinema, Tanjung Aru Beach Hotel, Api Api Centre and Centre Point.

"Approvals for alienation of hundreds of thousands of acres were given to PBS leaders and supporters at low premium. They then sold them at great profits to non-Sabahan companies, most of which were PLCs from West Malaysia.

"This is how more than 85 percent of the oil palm industry is now owned by non-Sabahans," he said, adding that during the nine years of PBS rule, logs in millions of cubic metres from Sabah Foundation and Sabah Forest industry had been exported at greatly deflated prices to enrich a very selected few.

"Had PBS discharged its fiduciary duty in the way it should have been done, the reserve of RM2.5 billion from Harris, all the lands which have been alienated to PBS leaders and supporters and sold to non-Sabahans and the sales proceeds of all the logs could have been utilised to build a good future for all Sabahans.

"The reality is that PBS had mismanaged the economy of Sabah and cheap-sold Sabah's assets. Dr Mahathir was not responsible for Sabah's sufferings. It was PBS," he claimed.

Thus, Rahim said, had Pairin cooperated with Dr Mahathir and had not pulled out of BN in 1990, Sabah would have been much better off.

"Knowing Dr Mahathir, he would have accorded all possible assistance and allocated Federal funds to develop Sabah as he had done for Sarawak, which by the way, has the second highest GDP per capita in the country in 2009. Sabah's position is 13th," he said.

Blaming Mahathir is unbecoming

"If PBS thinks that Sabah has suffered much under Dr Mahathir, why did Pairin try all sorts of ways to crawl back to BN, including begging for assistance of Tan Sri Chong Kah Mat to intercede on his behalf?

"On being accepted back, he even kissed the hand of Dr Mahathir. And promptly declared that he had always been a secret admirer of Dr Mahathir.

"I think Dr Mahathir was big hearted to put the 'back stabbing incident' behind him and in the interest of nation building, accepted Pairin and PBS back into the BN's fold.

"Blaming Dr Mahathir for the sufferings of Sabah is, therefore, most unbecoming. Such arrogance could only emanate from a political party that is basking with pride on having been endowed with the appointment of a second Deputy Chief Minister recently," said Rahim.