Assuming is not an offence

Published on: Sunday, September 08, 2019

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I REFER to your report on the Prime Minister being not aware of Sabah’s displeasure on certain policy matters and saying very clearly and in no uncertain terms that “the Sabah Government did not say anything” on these matters.

Yet two Sabahan ministers wanted to pick a quarrel just because your report suggested that the PM may have been referring to Sabahan Ministers at federal level without mentioning names.

Your explanation was sufficient to clear the air that placing the “Sabah Ministers at federal level” within brackets was on assumption as to who the PM may be referring to.

Given the context of the Prime Minister’s response, it is obvious as assumed that he must be referring to Sabah Ministers at the federal level since that is where policies are made and discussed before implementation.

As a lawyer interested in constitutional matters, I was disappointed with Liew Vui Keong’s mishandling of the MA63 issue when without adequate consultation with Sabah and Sarawak he tried to push through the Bill to amend the Constitution.

In any event even if the amendments had gone through it would not have made an iota of difference to the positions of Sabah and Sarawak in the Federation.

Vanugopal