Congrats to Raymond Tan on appointed Deputy Chief Minister – he should resolve all the woes of the scandalous RM34 million new Sandakan market within a month, get formal State Cabinet approval for world’s tallest Mazu statue in Kudat and address Sabah’s curse of 2Cs and 2Is to show that he is a DCM with “teeth”

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Media Statement (2)       
by Lim Kit Siang  
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(Parliament, Friday) : Congrats to Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) Deputy President Datuk Raymond Tan Shu Kiah on his appointment as Deputy Chief Minister of Sabah and Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) Vice President Datuk Liew Yun Fan as Minister for Youth and Sports. 

I do not expect any thanks from the duo, although all Sabahans know that if not for my strong criticisms of the Sabah Chief Minister, Datuk Seri Musa Aman during my three-day political tour of Tawau, Kota Kinabalu and Sandakan last weekend for leaving vacant the two posts relinquished by Tan Sri Chong Kah Keat and the marginalization of both the Chinese and the Kadazandusun Murut communities in Sabah Baru, both appointments would have remained shelved. 

Although the Sabah State Secretary Datuk K. Y. Mustafa said yesterday that Musa had informed the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi of the reshuffle on April 25 and he had agreed to the appointments, nobody would believe Mustapha’s statement. 

If Mustapha was speaking the truth, then Musa has a blackmark in setting the worst record for any state government leader in having to take nine long days to implement such a decision, which would normally be announced on the very same day itself.  

Can Musa explain the reasons for such gross incompetence and ineptitude? 

Mustafa was clearly trying to shield the Chief Minister and fend off my political criticisms of Musa on this issue, but it is not his job as the state’s No. 1 civil servant to be embroiled in the political waters. 

Mustafa should zealously safeguard the independence, impartiality, professionalism and image of the state civil service and not compromise them by doing political yeoman service for his political master. 

Mustafa should leave politics to the politicians and do a good job as a model civil servant in the state by demonstrating that as the No. 1 civil servant in Sabah, he fully understands the meaning of civil service independence, impartiality, integrity and non-partisanship and is guided by these principles in his every action and statement. 

Now that Raymond Tan has been appointed a Sabah Deputy Chief Minister, on top of his post as Infrastructure Development Minister, there are two things he must do to demonstrate that he does not forget his “roots” and that he is a Deputy Chief Minister with “teeth”.

Firstly, Raymond should give himself one month to resolve all the woes of the scandalous RM34 million new Sandakan market, especially as he is one of the Sandakan State Assemblymen, in particular  

• why the grandious “white elephant” of a market in Sandakan incur a cost overrun of over 60% from the original RM21 million to RM34 million, whether there was corruption and if so, why nobody had been arrested and prosecuted for corruption;

• why the State Government and the Sandakan Municipal Council had ignored the cries of the stallholders who had moved in for the past few months that they could not make ends meet, being sandwiched between high rentals and poor business as a result of bad siting, lack of supportive infrastructure like proper bus service and sub-standard construction despite exorbitant construction costs.

Secondly get formal State Cabinet approval for the world’s tallest Mazu statue in Kudat now that Musa has publicly stated that he had not objected to it; and 

Thirdly, set a timetable to address and resolve the curses of  2Cs and 2Is in Sabah, which was the thrust of my speech in Sandakan last Sunday, namely crime and corruption for the 2Cs and illegal immigrants and infrastructure failures for the 2Is, in particular the longstanding water and power infrastructures woes in Sandakan and Tawau.

(4/5/2007)