KOTA MARUDU, April 30 – The opposition is only good at deceiving the people by saying that the Barisan Nasional (BN) government did nothing for Kota Marudu when it is their own leader who has yet to fulfil his promise made to the longhouse folk 20 years ago, Datuk Seri Dr Maximus Ongkili said.
He said Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim had come to Kota Marudu in 1994 when he was then finance minister and remarked that the longhouse dwellings looked like chicken coops, and promised to replace the longhouses and transform Sabah within 100 days.
“What has Anwar done since then? Nothing. But he has the cheek to tell Kota Marudu folk that the Barisan Nasional leaders here did nothing,” he said at the ground breaking ceremony for the construction of a Bailey bridge in Kg Simpangan-Nangko here yesterday.
Citing the example of the Bailey bridge, he said the opposition used the issue to deceive the people by taking photographs showing a vehicle stuck in the river because there was no Bailey bridge to cross over.
“The opposition posted the photo on the Internet showing people pulling the car across the river, but when we looked at the photograph the car tyres showed the river water was not even high and the vehicle was not even stuck,” he said.
Ongkili said the Barisan Nasional government would only promise to do what it could fulfil, such as building the Bailey bridge which would benefit eight villages. The bridge will be ready in June. It is also proposed that the road leading to the river be upgraded under the Tenth Malaysia Plan.
Later, Ongkili, the incumbent MP for Kota Marudu, launched the Kg Longob longhouse which is one of the 24 longhouses approved for reconstruction by the federal government between 2009 and 2012, to replace those that were old and dilapidated. On the opposition claim that he had not resolved the overlapping land claim issue involving Safoda and Begaraya and the villagers, Dr Ongkili said it was the opposition which was impeding the process.
He said the state government had agreed to issue communal titles to the villages concerned with the ultimate aim to divide them into individual titles.
“But the opposition is telling the people that communal title is bad, thus the people will not get the rights over their kampung land.”
Dr Ongkili said he and the other two assemblymen — Sarapin Magana (who is defending his Matunggong state seat) and Anita Baranting (who is the Barisan Nasional candidate for Tandek) –- had worked hard to resolve the issue as native customary rights land belonged to the villagers.
Two communal titles involving Kg Bombong 1 and Kg Sungai Magandai were ready for release while four more were being processed, he said.
BERNAMA
