SET UP SPECIAL UNIT TO RESOLVE ISSUES IN SABAH AND SARAWAK

27 DEC 2020

KOTA KINABALU: A non-governmental organisation (NGO) Angkatan Perpaduan Sabah (APS) is urging the Ministry in the Prime Minister’s Department (Sabah and Sarawak Affairs) to set up a special unit to help resolve relevant issues concerning Sabah and Sarawak.

Its Vice President, Paul Kadau said the unit would help effectively monitor concerns related to religion and native affairs as well as cultural traditions, among others.

“By doing this, the minister (Datuk Seri Maximus Ongkili) will no longer have to wait for people to come forward and complain, as well as gather any evidence because he himself will be more advanced than others by knowing any issue or problem fast, and act on it immediately.

“This would be better and effective than just playing wait and see. APS can also help, as we had been doing so since 2012, by continuing to highlight the concerns of especially Sabahans if that will help the minister to respond and take action fast to resolve it," he said in a statement, Sunday.

He was responding to Political Secretary to the minister who had asked to list down complaints and insults on natives and Christians in Sabah and not make baseless remarks, as well as furnish the relevant authorities with evidence to support his claims.

“I can’t believe that the Minister and his men are not aware of what is happening, even in the online social media,” he said in a statement Sunday.

He was responding to the minister's Political Secretary Christopher Mandut who had asked the NGO to list down complaints and insults on natives and Christians in Sabah and not make baseless remarks, as well as furnish the relevant authorities with evidence to support his claims.

Paul said on November 28, 2015, he had lodged a police report at Keningau District Police Headquarters against a leader in Beaufort for insulting the Dusun community.

According to him, he had also filed a suit in the Keningau Native Court, but the hearing was postponed twice due to intervention by certain quarters in the higher-up.

Last year on December 11 he said he had lodged a police report against a person called Andi Rishal Ardan whose address was in Sandakan, over his action to upload an obscene photo on his Facebook account that had insulted the Christian community.

He also mentioned that another police report had been lodged against a Facebook user early this year over a malign remark on Christianity, but no arrest or action has been taken thus far.

“Is this kind of act also exempted from the Federal Constitution and the laws of Sabah?” he said.

“I would be happy to furnish all the evidence so they can help look into it all and help ensure actions are taken,” he stressed.