Sabah’s decision to re-open creates more confusion, says SAPP chief

The Sabah state government has allowed domestic tourism activities to resume.

PETALING JAYA: The Sabah state government’s sudden decision to allow a majority of businesses to re-open has created a lot of confusion, Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) president Yong Teck Lee said today.

He said the Sabah government’s “right hand does not seem to know what its left hand is doing” because of contradictory remarks by a state minister and the chief minister.

Yong said there was confusion because the Warisan-led administration had earlier said businesses would only re-open on May 13 despite a Putrajaya directive allowing most businesses to resume operations this week.

Yong said chief minister Shafie Apdal had even stated that the state government would reject the directive under the conditional movement control order as it wanted to “save lives first.”

Yong Teck Lee

But a mere three days later, on May 7, small and medium enterprises were allowed to re-open and as of yesterday, Sabah had re-opened almost all sectors of the economy.

However, on the day that Shafie announced the re-opening of almost all business, his own infrastructure minister was reported to have said that Sabah was still following the strict MCO restrictions and not the more relaxed Conditional MCO.

Yong also accused Shafie of recklessly endangering Sabah’s relationship with the federal government by being involved in moves to oust Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin and replace him with Dr Mahathir Mohamad through a confidence vote in the Dewan Rakyat.

Shafie was also criticised by Parti Bersatu Sabah two days ago for the “sudden U-turn” on the relaxation of restrictions under the movement control order. PBS information chief Joniston Bangkuai said the about-turn had led to confusion among the people.

Earlier today, Shafie said domestic tourism, air transport and motor vehicle sales could resume operations in Sabah. - FMT