Azis (seated, centre) speaking to reporters when commenting on former chief minister Tan Sri Musa Aman’s statement on Wednesday.
SANDAKAN: Sabahans will be very surprised when Parti Warisan Sabah (Warisan) reveals more data about what the previous government had done, said Warisan Wira chief cum Sepanggar Member of Parliament, Datuk Mohd Azis Jamman.
He said the party, through its president cum Chief Minister, Datuk Seri Panglima Shafie Apdal will reveal the details when the time comes.
Azis said this when commenting on former chief minister Tan Sri Musa Aman’s statement on Wednesday that Warisan was spreading fake news to confuse the public, especially when Shafie claimed the previous state government had given land belonging to Yayasan Sabah to a selected few.
In Musa’s statement, he also said Shafie as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Yayasan Sabah, should have known that this cannot be true because YS licensed area cannot be alienated to a third party. As a sole licensee, Yayasan Sabah can only invite a third party to extract timber by Reduced Impact Logging (RIL) or develop its licensed area on a contractual basis.
Replying to this statement, Azis said that if what Shafie said was not true, then Musa should file a suit and take the matter to court.
“If it was wrong, then sue. We have a lot more data to back our statements…some will only be released when the time comes. Sabahans will be very surprised by what CM will reveal. For example when Jeffrey (Datuk Dr Jeffrey Kitingan) was the Director of Yayasan Sabah, (there was) land that had gone missing…gone.
“So if this person thinks that we are not telling the truth, fight it out in court. Don’t need to issue a story here and there,” Azis stressed.
He said this at a press conference after the Leaders with Libaran Parliament Rakyat Ceremony held at the People’s Housing Project (PPR) Muhibbah hall, Rancangan Sungai Manila, Mile 12 here, Wednesday night.
Azis also told the press that the by-election result in Slim, Perak, on August 29 would not translate to what is going to happen in the state election.
“It cannot be denied that the three largest Malay parties in Peninsular Malaysia working together has created a political landscape that the Malays are united as one.
“However, in Sabah as a unique state that is multiracial with various races and mixed religions, it would not work here.
“Sabahans are unique; the Muslims would at times defend those who are not Muslims, and the non-Muslims would do the same for the Muslims. I am confident that what happened in Slim would not happen in Sabah,” he said.
Earlier, when speaking to the attendees who consisted of local leaders and Warisan members, Azis said not to judge a leader from the way he speaks, but how he handles temptations.
“Don’t judge from the way the person speaks on stage, anyone could do that; judge from the way he handles temptation. I am proud to say that a total of nine MPs (Member of Parliament) and 21 state assemblymen from Warisan, not even one person had sold his dignity to them (other parties).
“We were begged, persuaded, offered with big sums of money, and some were even pushed, and threatened, but we were firm and we stayed with Warisan. We have proven that money is not everything; we are not in this for the money,” he stressed.
Azis then explained how the previous government exploited Sabah’s resources for the use of Peninsular Malaysia.
“How many Sabahans are now working in the Peninsular? Question is, how can this be? What is there that Sabah does not have? We have timber, petroleum, gas, palm oil, beautiful islands, seafood sources that we also export, oil, gold and coal. What is the reason that Sabah’s children are migrating to the Peninsula to work? Think about this,” he said.
The ceremony ended with a total of 150 former Umno members from Libaran submitting their membership forms to join Warisan. On Tuesday, a total of 200 Umno members in Kinabatangan joined Warisan.