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KOTA KINABALU: Former Chief Minister Musa Aman criticized Warisan President Shafie Apdal for accusing the previous state government, headed by him, of allegedly handing over land belonging to Yayasan Sabah to certain people.
Musa denounced that Shafie, who is the acting prime minister, was becoming increasingly desperate as the latter had resorted to “spreading outright lies and slander in his attempt to cling to power.”
He claimed that Shafie, in his recent campaign speeches, had made unfounded accusations and “played the race card unashamedly” to confuse the public.
“The spread of fake news has become the norm for Warisan,” he said in a statement today.
“Recently, Shafie denounced that the previous state government had allegedly ceded land belonging to Yayasan Sabah to a select few.
“Clearly, Shafie’s intention is highly questionable because, as chairman of the Yayasan Sabah Board of Trustees, he should have known that this cannot be true because the Yayasan Sabah licensed area cannot be disposed of to a third party.
“As the sole licensee, Yayasan Sabah can only invite a third party to extract timber using reduced impact logging (EIR) or develop its authorized area on a contractual basis.
“I suppose that for some politicians, fake news, lies, a smear campaign and the murder of characters are the only ways to get elected.”
Last week, a Sabah businessman had rejected the allegations made by Shafie about the disappearance of state lands belonging to Yayasan Sabah.
The businessman, Mohemad Amin Azizurahman @ Amin Khan, said that several people had accused him of being a thief and a robber after Shafie made the accusations in his previous speeches, which were widely shared.
Amin said that Shafie had alleged that he had received 30,000 acres of land in Kalabakan from the Yayasan Sabah foundation, and that between 600,000 and 700,000 acres of the foundation’s land had “disappeared.”
He had said: “I have never obtained 30,000 acres of land from Yayasan Sabah at any time. As far as I know, the concession land areas held by Yayasan Sabah are all under a single license and it is impossible for such areas to “disappear” or be turned over to third parties. These areas will always remain under Yayasan Sabah. “
In his statement today, Musa questioned Shafie’s motive for making allegations that certain communities were favored by the previous government in awarding land.
“No one can be blamed for inferring that his speeches are riddled with racism. Warisan hasn’t accomplished much since they unconstitutionally seized the government that was legally formed after GE14.
“With only a 0.5% GDP (gross domestic product) growth rate, the lowest in Malaysia for 2019, Shafie and his ministers seem happy to spend most of their time performing ceremonial chores and ribbon cutting for officiate projects and programs started by the previous government, ”said Musa.
Musa said that, at best, Warisan had mastered the art of announcing billions of ringgit projects that hadn’t seen the light of day.
“I must say that Warisan’s KPI (key performance index) on making empty promises and spreading fake news is extremely high, but I fear for Sabah if it is as good as it sounds.”
