KOTA KINABALU — The Change Advocate Movement of Sabah (CAMOS) today strongly condemned the Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) government for its worsening record of wastage, leakages and inflated project costs — describing it as the real reason behind Sabah’s financial stagnation and the so-called “gaji YB tidak cukup makan” mentality spreading among GRS leaders.
CAMOS Kota Kinabalu Coordinator Johnny S. H. Liew said the RM20 million Bukit Padang Park “upgrade” — which took nearly three years to complete and still remains unfinished — is the latest proof of lavish spending, poor planning, and shameless disregard for taxpayers’ money.
“When you spend RM20 million to barely patch up a public park, and millions more on fancy car plates and billboards, yet politicians complain their salaries are not enough — it shows what kind of mindset is governing Sabah,” Johnny said.
He said the problem is not that elected representatives are underpaid, but that too many in the GRS administration are addicted to wastage, patronage and inflated contracts.
“The same leaders who cry that ‘gaji YB tidak cukup makan’ are the ones approving multi-million ringgit projects with no transparency or accountability. This is a government that feeds on public money and still claims to be starving,” he added.
Johnny said the Auditor-General’s revelation of RM20 billion in leakages and wastages underlines a governance crisis where resources meant for the people have been siphoned off through incompetence and corruption.
“Every ringgit wasted is a ringgit stolen from hospitals, schools, small traders and rural communities. While ordinary Sabahans struggle with rising costs, the GRS government continues to pour money into image-building and half-baked vanity projects,” he said.
CAMOS called for a full forensic audit of all state-funded projects since 2020, including the Bukit Padang Park, billboard contracts, and the special car plate license deal, demanding the publication of cost breakdowns and contractor lists.
“Enough with excuses and photo opportunities. Sabahans want clean governance, not leaders who cry poverty while sitting on a mountain of public waste,” Johnny stressed.
He concluded that good governance is not about raising politicians’ pay — it’s about restoring integrity, ending leakages, and putting people before profit.
