Shafie mocks BN’s distribution of school bags in Sabah

KOTA KINABALU: First he allegedly mocked Rela members, now the Parti Warisan Sabah president may likely spark another firestorm by mocking Barisan Nasional (BN) for an event they held recently in which school bags were distributed to children.

“I’ve never seen such events in Brunei and Singapore,” Shafie said at a Warisan gathering in Labuan on Saturday.

He pointed out that the only reason the event was necessary was because parents in Sabah could not even afford to purchase such basic items for their children.

“It’s not that it is wrong to give away school bags but wouldn’t it be better for parents to have enough so that they were the ones who buy these for their children,” he said.

He also claimed that some schools in Sabah were so financially strapped that they needed assistance from their respective parent-teacher associations.

Saying that education was a priority for any responsible government, he added, “What is the point of having modern communications in the cities when schools in rural areas remain dilapidated?”

He said that if Warisan was able to form a state government in Sabah, it would set up an education and innovation ministry.

He said Warisan had capable leaders that included professionals like engineers, lawyers and financial experts that could run the state administration efficiently.

He also said Sabah could progress well if it was administered effectively considering its vast natural resources such as oil and gas, oil palm and timber.

“Barisan has promised to develop Sabah. But look at remote areas like Pensiangan,” Shafie said, adding that the Statistics Department reported that the state’s poverty rate stood at 5.7%.

“Sabah is among the three poorest states in the nation. Unemployment is a problem even among university graduates,” he said.

He said a Warisan-led state government would build mills to process palm oil into cooking oil to lower the cost of the commodity in Sabah.

“Our priority areas include education and agriculture,” he said.

Just recently, Shafie came under intense criticism for allegedly belittling Rela members, whom he said were only good for crowd and traffic control.

At a meet-the-people gathering in Tuaran, Shafie had questioned the capability of Rela members deployed to assist security forces in the Eastern Sabah Security Zone (Esszone), pointing out that they were not even trained to handle weapons.

A police report was subsequently lodged against him for his remarks.

Chief Minister Musa Aman also criticised Shafie for his remarks, saying he should not be arrogant as he too had benefitted from Rela services when he was still in government. -FMT