KOTA KINABALU: Minister of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs, Datuk Armizan Mohd Ali, should prioritise Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s instruction, requiring all ministers to conduct on-site inspections of the prices and quantities of goods being sold in the market.
In making the call, Sabah UMNO Election Director Jeffrey Nor Mohamed said Armizan should avoid attacking the Sabah UMNO chief, Datuk Seri Bung Moktar Radin, as it may be perceived as a calculated move to seek cheap publicity.
He said it appears as if Armizan is belittling the Prime Minister’s directive and spending more time on political matters, failing to see the cost of living situation faced by the people.
“At this time, the people are facing rising prices of goods approaching the Hari Raya Aidilfitri celebration, but the ministers keep pointing fingers and blaming others.
“Armizan keeps blaming Bung Moktar for allegedly failing to resolve many issues when he was a Minister and Deputy Chief Minister of Sabah,” he said in a statement today.
Jeffrey Nor, the Putatan UMNO chief, said Armizan also mentioned that the average leaders in Sabah are very old and have been in the political arena in Sabah for a long time.
“Armizan himself conveniently forgets that those in Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) and Gagasan Rakyat Sabah are also old politicians who were once with UMNO and Barisan Nasional (BN) in the past.
“Does Armizan want to know why Bung Moktar left the government because he knows that GRS has no direction to develop the state of Sabah?” explained Jeffrey Nor.
He added that as the Deputy Chief Minister, Bung Moktar does not have absolute power, and all approvals are subject to the Chief Minister and the Sabah Finance Minister.
“At this time, the Sabah Finance Ministry is seen to be directly handling a RM165 million road concession within one year.
According to Jeffrey Nor, it is expected that road matters should be under the control of JKR Sabah, but the GRS government has its own privileges due to the fact that the Ministry of Finance Sabah can handle them independently.
In theory, it has never happened in the world that MOF can independently manage highway concessions, unless it only exists and happens in MOF Sabah.
“This is the reason why Bung Moktar couldn’t tolerate the behavior and ‘crazy’ actions of GRS at that time,” said Jeffrey Nor.
