Minister's disclosure damaging for Dept: Sabah PKR
Published on: Wednesday, February 03, 2016
Kota Kinabalu: Sabah Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) said there is no reason for the Sabah Wildlife Department (SWD) to be taking forever to take a simple statement from a Federal Minister concerning a matter of public interest.PKR Sabah Deputy Chief, Christina Liew, said if what Minister of Rural and Regional Development Datuk Ismail Sabri said was true, i.e. that the department never bothered to contact him the past three months for his statement on the turtle eggs issue, then its Director William Baya and the department had let down concerned environmental activists, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and Sabahans."Perhaps the Director should be replaced. What is so special that Ismail is allowed five months, if we date back the controversial dinner to August 2015?
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"Since the issue surfaced in social media only in November 2015, three months is also bad enough," she said in a statement.Investigations into the dinner held in August last year in Sandakan started after photos of Ismail, Beluran Umno Division Chief, Datuk James Ratib and other Umno leaders emerged in November, showing turtle eggs placed in front of them.Liew, who is also Api Api Assemblywoman, commenting on latest reports in social media quoting Baya that the Minister would be contacted soon and blaming logistical issues for preventing the department from contacting him earlier, said:Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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"The department's failure to take a statement from Ismail earlier is damaging for its image," she said, and hoped it is not due to this sort of attitude that several cases like massacres of turtles, killing of sun bears and poisoning of elephants in Sabah saw no culprits ever being caught.
