DE has contacted PM’s office on matter
Published on: Sunday, August 18, 2019
By: James Sarda
THE questions to the Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad were posed at the end of the PM’s official visit to AirAsia’s Red Q building on Saturday. An opportunity to ask the Prime Minister questions is rare.
Even more rare if you can get him to answer all that you want to know, considering his tight schedule and the fact that he is working overtime to put this country on the right footing again.
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Hence, Daily Express was fortunate to have posed three questions and have at least one of them answered in full. It seems that it is his response to the third question that has ruffled certain State leaders’ feathers. The first question was whether Sabah can expect a higher allocation in this year’s budget. The second was whether Sabahans and Sarawakians can expect something positive on deliberations on the Malaysia Agreement grievances with Malaysia Day approaching.
The third was that some state leaders seemed unhappy that Sabah’s views were not taken into consideration, being a PH-friendly government and what he had to say about this. These were on the departure levy, appointment of the UMS Vice Chancellor and the introduction of Jawi in schools next year.
All of which have been reported in this paper and are of public interest. Tun immediately responded to the third question and he said words to the effect that I am the one telling him this but not the State Government.
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He explicitly said “Sabah government didn’t say anything.” Hence, the words in brackets in the report since he didnt say who but what we assume to be (Sabah leaders at the Federal level).
Surely it cannot be the Chief Minister as Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal has a lot on his plate and cannot be expected to fly down to meet the PM on every little thing.
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The part “As far as Im concerned” is the only thing Tun didn’t say.
That came about because the recorder was not on the table and the big crowd of reporters meant having to be some distance away and was not clearly audible.
To say he was surprised was not wrong as he was taken aback by the question and even joked about it.
However, it does not take anything away frm the gist of his statement where he referred to the State Government.
An attempt was made to make him elaborate further on what he meant, as well as his responses to the earlier two questions but was denied by the MC who said they had run out of time.
Hence, there is no misreporting as suggested. Perhaps the need for further clarification from Tun himself.
Daily Express has already contacted the Prime Minister’s office and is waiting a response. In the meantime, it affords an opportunity for Sabah Ministers at the federal level to also ask the PM on what he had in mind when saying so that day.
Darrel’s suggestion to seek an explanation and clarification is laudable and should be supported.
It cannot be denied that Sabah leaders at the federal level must have been doing their part. Surely they must have.
Related Stories:
DE has contacted PM’s office on matter
DE did not misreport: Ex-CM
Sabah leaders didn’t complain: Dr M
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