Share swap fiasco: PBS challenged to support White Paper
By Queville To, Free Malaysia Today
KOTA KINABALU: Local-based political parties are facing a tough call at the coming state assembly sitting where a motion will be moved that will shed light on what caused the Saham Amanah Sabah (SAS) fiasco.
Barisan Nasional component Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) in particular will come under scrutiny on how they vote after having called for transparency in the deal which saw thousands of Sabahans lose their savings.
Opposition Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) now wants PBS leaders who were at one time clamoring for an investigation into the share debacle, to support the opposition-sponsored motion for the issuance of a White Paper on the SAS.
This will put PBS leaders, and in particular its deputy president Dr Yee Moh Chai and now a cabinet minister in the state government who championed the issue when the party was in the opposition, under pressure when the motion is tabled.
SAPP deputy president Liew Teck Chan agrees with Yee’s earlier stand for transparency and says the issuance of a White Paper is now the only way to find out about the truth behind the SAS debacle.
Liew, state rep for Likas, noted that he had at the last state assembly sitting tabled a motion requesting the state government to explain the whole process and transaction of SAS once and for all.
‘Who are they protecting?’
However, an earlier attempt to table a motion on the issue at the last assembly was torpedoed by the government through a bureaucratic maneuver that caught the opposition by surprise.
Liew who tabled the motion wants to know why the government is reluctant to let the truth be known.
“Who are they protecting? PBS leaders have been vocal on this issue … why are they not supporting the White Paper which I am sure is the most transparent mechanism to check the outcome of the whole SAS issues,” he asked.
