BN rep hits out at pro-opposition KK mayor

A freshly minted Sepanggar Barisan Nasional MP has taken city council mayor Abidin Madingkir to task for “holding-up” RM5 million which was meant for development projects in the constituency.

Jumat Idris said the federal government had until July last year allocated millions of ringgit for development projects in the Sepanggar parliamentary constituency and there was a balance of about RM5 million yet to be utilised.

Jumat said several projects had since been approved but the money is yet to released.

“I had put on a thick face in asking for the allocation from the Prime Minister’s Department and other ministries and agencies, but here we have an non-effective mayor sitting on his job,” Jumat told a gathering of farmers in Menggatal on Tuesday.

Allocations for development in Sepanggar are channelled to the City Hall.

To release the funds, the local MP, BN chairman and assemblyman have to forward to City Hall a list of projects approved for implementation.

Although last year, Jumat was was not an MP, he was tasked with looking after Sepanggar after its MP Eric Majimbun of Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) quit the national coalition soon after the 2008 general elections.

The constituency encompasses the state seats of Karambunai and Inanam.

Jumat, who won the Sepanggar MP seat in the May 5 polls, accused the mayor of being an agent of the opposition.

He claimed that Abidin, who had been given another term to head the City Hall on the recommendation of Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS), had failed to do what was expected of him.

“He (Abidin) must show better performance in carrying out his duties or resign from the post to allow someone more capable to take over.

“Such a huge sum of money is yet to be utilised due to a lack of cooperation from the Mayor’s office.”

“Some of the allocations were from July last year. This shows that he is an inefficient government officer because he takes too long. He is really unproductive,” Jumat raged.

‘Shame on Abidin’

Jumat, who is also Sepanggar Umno chief, said the failure to carry out the projects had a negative impact on the residents of Kota Kinabalu, especially those in the Sepanggar suburban area.

“Whatever it is, his contract has been renewed and his services as mayor has been continued. But I want to challenge him, if he does not want to work under the BN government he should resign.

“It is a shame when a Bumiputera is not sensitive to help other Bumiputera.

“Sepanggar is mainly a Bumiputera area. I am frustrated because our efforts to develop the area is halted,” he said.

“This is what happens if a government officer is not with us. That is why I always said we need to replace officers who could not work with BN.

“Government officers must give us their fullest cooperation or we should go after them. As the government we must fight for the people as we are responsible and answerable to them,” he said.

DAP comes to the defence of mayor

Meanwhile, DAP’s Luyang state rep, Hiew King Cheu, came to the defence of the mayor, stating that Jumat was being unfair in his attacks.

Hiew said there should not be a blame-game and finger pointing as to why the allocations were not fully distributed by the City Hall.

He added that allocations were not only under-utilised in Kota Kinabalu but the same was true for the whole of Sabah.

“The allocation RM16.9 billion for Sabah in the 9th Malaysia Plan was not fully utilised, and from the 3,690 approved projects only 2,056 projects worth RM6.81 billion were completed.

“What happened to the remaining unused RM10.09 billion and the 843 projects wanted by the people?

“In the 10th Malaysia Plan (2011-2015), a sum of RM20.3 billion had been allocated, and will this sum be used effectively and fully?

“If that is the case, according to Jumat’s rationale, the whole lot of the government officers have to resign,” said Hiew.

He added that the federal or other allocations could not be controlled by the opposition or the people in need.

“In this case why blame the KK mayor Abidin? The poor fellow is just executing the instructions and directives from “upstair” or the top brass of the BN,” he said. -FMT