Who is telling the truth?
KOTA KINABALU: Warisan president and former Sabah Chief Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal has disputed the accuracy of the statement by the Minister of Finance, Datuk Seri Masidi Manjun, who is trying to downplay the fact that under the former leadership in 2019, the Sabah state government fully settled RM1 billion in bond debt inherited from the previous administration.
Shafie said Masidi is trying to make it sound like the repayment happened on its own, as if Warisan just sat there and the debt paid itself.
“But that is far from the truth. The fact is that when Warisan took office in 2018, there was only about RM400 million in the Sinking Fund, just a year before the bond matured.
“This was barely 40% of what was needed to repay the bond principal, and that was without counting interest,” he said in a statement today.
Masidi in his statement said the previous Barisan Nasional (BN) government was required to set aside RM200 million a year in the Sinking Fund from 2014 to 2019.
Shafie asserted that his claim that BN had already “set aside” the RM1 billion is false.
“By 2018, the bulk of the repayment, which was roughly RM600 million, still had to be found within months.
“The bond repayment was not just the RM1 billion principal. It also included interest payments, bringing the total repayment to well over RM1 billion.
“That meant Warisan had to secure not just the RM600 million shortfall in principal but also the additional funds to cover interest, and all within a year of taking office,” he said.
Through prudent financial management, cost controls and reallocation of resources, Shafie said Warisan boosted the Sinking Fund from RM400 million to RM1 billion in a year.
“This ensured the bond was fully repaid on schedule.
“However, the bond itself raises serious questions. Masidi, who was part of the BN cabinet at that time, must explain what the RM1 billion bond was really used for and whether Sabahans benefited.
“I had also been made to understand that RM500 million of the bond proceeds was in fact spent in another state and not in Sabah,” he added.
If true, Shafie said this means half of the debt burden Sabahans carried for five years did nothing to improve infrastructure, services or development here in Sabah.
“This is the same BN administration that left Sabah with mounting debts, shrinking reserves and questionable mega-projects.
“If they were so ‘prudent’, why was the Sinking Fund far short of the repayment amount by 2018?
“Why did so much of the borrowed money benefit another state instead of Sabah?” he said.
Shafie said Warisan protected the Sinking Fund, secured the remaining RM600 million and honoured the debt in full without cutting essential services to the people.
Masidi’s claim that this was BN’s “victory” falls apart when you look at the facts, he said.
Shafie said the repayment didn’t happen automatically, but it was the result of tough decisions, strict financial discipline and managing the state responsibly despite limited time and financial pressure.
