LDP praises Warisan govt, criticises Umno

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SANDAKAN: The Parti Warisan Sabah-led State Government has demonstrated strong political will in rectifying the flaws of the previous administration despite being largely young and inexperienced, said Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) acting president Datuk Chin Su Phin.

For instance, Chin said the Health and People’s Wellbeing Minister Stephen Wong had taken time to visit hospitals and exposed various issues that needed to be addressed.
During his tenure as a Senator, Chin pointed out that he had repeatedly raised the problems faced by the Duchess of Kent Hospital in Sandakan and invited the former health minister to visit the hospital.

“Regrettably, the latter only assigned his assistant minister to inspect the Duchess of Kent Hospital, whom after a meeting with the hospital officials, left hastily.

“I, as a Senator and BN Sandakan chairman then, was not even informed of his visit,” he said when officiating at the joint conference of LDP Tanjung Papat, Sekong, Sungai Sibuga and Karamunting divisions here yesterday.

Chin also commended Deputy Chief Minister cum Minister of Tourism, Culture and Environment Christina Liew for carrying out spot checks at the Kota Kinabalu International Airport (KKIA) following complaints about the toilets.

He said the dirty toilets at KKIA was among the issues he had brought up in the Dewan Negara time after time but no action was taken by the relevant authorities then.

“The ex-ministers of BN government failed to take these issues seriously.”

On another note, Chin believed that the new government would require time to look into the recognition of the Unified Examination Certificate (UEC).

“After all, they have only been elected for a few months.”

He said MCA’s effort to get UEC recognized for the past 30 years had been ineffective.

“In BN’s election manifesto, the coalition had pledged to recognize UEC. However, as soon as Umno was defeated, the party colluded with PAS to oppose UEC recognition.

“It further proved that Umno did not intend to recognize UEC at all.”

Chin believed that it was just a matter of time before the Pakatan Harapan (PH) government led by Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad fulfilled the promises in their manifesto.

He said it was regrettable to see that Umno remained adamant in their ways and had shown no remorse after their defeat in the polls, nor did the party considered the reason people voted against the party.

He said many might have wondered why had LDP not leave BN in the first place.

Chin stressed that the party did uphold its principles.

“However, the then powerful Umno had abused the government system, including the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) and Inland Revenue Board of Malaysia (LHDN), to weed out the opposition.

“Even I was not spared from being investigated by MACC and LHDN when the Chief Minister of Sabah Datuk Seri Shafie Apdal, who was then the Rural and Regional Development Minister, was under probe due to our close relationship.”

At that time, Chin had in a meeting with the then Umno secretary-general Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Mansor, warned that the harsh approach taken by the government against Shafie would backfire as proven by former Chief Minister Tan Sri Harris Salleh’s use of high-handed tactics against Tan Sri Joseph Pairin Kitingan in the past.

“I had stressed to Tengku Adnan that the action might cost BN its governance in Sabah. And it did.”

In the recent Umno congress, Chin pointed out that the party was still calling for Malay agenda and even appointed former Attorney General Tan Sri Mohamed Apandi Ali as a Supreme Council member, though the latter had declined the appointment.

“Former Umno Youth chief Datuk Khairy Jamaluddin was right in saying that Umno would be finished within 15 years if the party continued to play with racial sentiments.”