Sabah govt should stop being inconsistent in making decisions

By Olivia Miwil - May 8, 2020 @ 6:20pm

KOTA KINABALU: Parti Bersatu Sabah said the Sabah government should be more consistent in its decision making.

Its Information Chief Datuk Joniston Bangkuai was referring to the state government's alleged U-turn following the implementation of the Conditional Movement Control Order (CMCO).

Chief Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal had said that Sabah will not follow the federal government to relax the MCO which was to take effect on May 4 nationwide.

"Despite growing criticism by the legal fraternity on the legality of Shafie's decision, he decided to ignore the federal government policy that was enforceable throughout the country.

"Then yesterday, Shafie suddenly made a U-turn against his decision and announced that Sabah decided to enforce phase 5 of the MCO by allowing certain industries to operate," he said in a statement.

Prior to the U-turn, there were also notices and WhatsApp messages circulated that police allowed inter-district travel and that four passengers could be in the same car as long as they were from the same house.

Joniston, who is also Kiulu assemblyman, said that with so many inconsistent statements, the people do not know what is permissible by law.

"This is not the time to be playing politics. The world is and will continue to face unprecedented dark days due to the ravages of Covid-19.

"The people are already suffering from the far-reaching impact of this deadly pandemic with so many sectors greatly affected and it will be a while before they see any signs of recovery.

"Until a vaccine is found, we must work together and put aside bipartisan politics to save lives and still keep some semblance of the economy going."