GRS, Warisan leaders trade barbs after Hajiji’s swipe at Shafie

KOTA KINABALU: A war of words has erupted between Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) and state opposition Parti Warisan after Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor accused his opponents of spinning untruths to smear the government.

GRS leaders defended Hajiji’s stand while Warisan maintained that its rival had failed to resolve the people’s issues.

GRS deputy youth chief Iskandar Zulkarnain Ramli said on Monday (March 11) that Warisan leaders were bankrupt of issues and were just relying on unsubstantiated facts to paint a bad picture on the GRS government under Hajiji.

“Warisan leaders only know how to label GRS and Hajiji as failures without wanting to look at the facts,” Zulkarnain said.

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Earlier, Warisan’s Elopura assemblyman Calvin Chong had said his party was voicing the people’s views on the state government’s failure to effectively address water and electricity supply, as well as poor road conditions.

Iskandar said Chong ignored the fact that Hajiji had launched the Sabah Energy road map (SE-RAMP 2040) with the state government taking over control of the Sabah Energy Commission from the Federal Government this year.

He said strategic action had resulted in a more stable power supply with improved performance by independent power producers (IPPs), as well as renewable energy added to the power grid.

With such measures, Sabah currently has a reserve of 200MW which has helped reduce power disruptions to consumers.

He said steps were also taken to improve capacity of water treatment plants across the state, and repair the dam gates at the Segualid water treatment plant which had been blamed for the “salty” water in Sandakan.

Iskandar said Warisan’s own leaders had been involved in action against squatter colonies in Sepanggar here.

“Squatter colonies are part of the water and electricity problem as they are stealing utilities,” he said.

He also blamed Warisan for stopping the various Pan-Borneo road projects when it was in government from 2018 to 2020.

“It was GRS that restarted the project,” Iskandar said.

Warisan’s Sri Tanjong assemblyman Justin Wong joined in the fray Monday, saying people want to see change but after four years of the GRS government, they had yet to see any.

He said accusing Shafie and Warisan of spinning untruths about GRS was an attempt by the state administration to “whitewash their failure or inaction” to resolve basic issues.