MAXIMUS NEEDS TO WORK HARDER AND SHOW RESULTS, OR RESIGN

16 April 2021

1. The de facto Minister of Sabah and Sarawak Affairs, Datuk Maximus Ongkili should either work harder, generate confidence for the fragile PN Government and show some results, or resign gracefully.

2. Being in a Federal Cabinet for a very long time before, and now in it again, surely gives light to the PBS president of how much he has to catch up with the rising expectations from both the current PM and the people in Sabah and Sarawak, as to how to correctly and expeditiously resolve outstanding issues.

3. No point for finger-pointing. Do what you could do while you are in power. Show that you care to resolve the Borneo Miseries, you name it Sabah and Sarawak trail in all spectres of developments within Malaysia, even though we are Malaysia's richest states in term of natural resources especially the oil and gas reserves.

4. How long must we wait? Recently, Malaysian governments come and go, but at best they just promised and formed committees. We want to see more tangible results than just committees.

5. Even the choice of words by our Minister "menyerahkan Pulau Sipadan dan Ligitan kepada Sabah" should have been "menyerahkan semula Pulau Sipadan dan Ligitan kepada Sabah" to put it in correct perspective.

6. And then, what had happened to all the recommendations of the various committees formed after the RCI on issuance of dubious documents to illegal immigrants? Why are the problems still unresolved? Why are they still here? Why are the governments building apartments for these immigrants but not for the bona fide natives?

7. What about Labuan? Even the strongest supporter for Labuan to federalise, Harris Salleh, recently lamented the failure of the act. To those Sabah political parties who always used Labuan being federalised as its election campaign battlecries, why are you silent now? You are now the ruling party with a "sympathetic?" PM, why don't you get to achieve what you said you surely would if you are the government?

8. On the matter of resigning from post, yes resigning from office is a critical decision for individuals as it remains one of the basic moral resources for individual with integrity.

9. The option to resign reinforces integrity, buttresses responsibility, supports accountability and can provide leverage for new better solutions to perennial issues.

10. The moral reasons to resign flow from three moral dimensions of integrity, that is the capacity to make and keep promises, the competence to do the tasks of office, and the ability to be effective.

CLEFTUS SPINE MOJINGOL

President of Sabah Dayak Group Cultural Organisation