Bongkos slams Rahim for ‘insulting’ Pairin

Posted on April 8, 2011, Friday

KOTA KINABALU: Kadazan Dusun Cultural Association (KDCA) deputy president, Datuk Seri Panglima Dr Clarence Bongkos Malakun has taken Pantai Manis assemblyman Datuk Rahim Ismail to task for his recent statement about the association’s president Tan Sri Joseph Pairin Kitingan.

According to Malakun, Abdul Rahim’s statement was tantamount to insulting Pairin who is Deputy Chief Minister cum Infrastructure Development Minister.

Malakun in a statement yesterday pointed out that Chief Minister Datuk Seri Musa Aman’s recent statement that “Future is what Matters” is very a wise and laudable advice to the leaders of Sabah and that he fully agreed with the former that a “United Sabah” is important in order to bring progress to Sabah and its people.

“Unlike the above statement by the Chief Minister, it is deeply regretted, especially by members of the Kadazan Dusun Cultural Association (KDCA) that Datuk Abdul Rahim Ismail, the State assemblyman for Pantai Manis, had chosen to directly insult Tan Sri Joseph Pairin Kitingan by saying that “Pairin should have recognised that he and PBS were and up to this day not national political material”.

“We would like to ask Datuk Abdul Rahim what he means by “National Political Material”? By saying that Tan Sri Pairin up to this day is not a “national political material” is not only a personal attack on the character and standing of Tan Sri Pairin but also downright very insulting to the KDCA members throughout Sabah since Pairin happens to be also the recognised “Huguan Siou” or the Paramount Leader of the Kadazan Dusun Murut people,” he said.

Pairin, Malakun said, has been KDCA president for the past 29 years therefore Rahim should not openly try to insult the Huguan Siou as not of “national political material” because by insulting him that way, the latter is indirectly also insulting the rest of the KDM, especially the KDCA members all over Sabah, including the KDM voters in Pantai Manis or the Papar area.

“If Pairin is not of national political material, then how about the rest of the Sabah leaders who are serving in the Federal Cabinet like Tan Sri Bernard G. Dompok, Datuk Seri Anifah Aman and Datuk Seri Dr Maximus Ongkili?

“Are they too regarded as “inferior” and not up to the mark and expectation of Datuk Abdul Rahim as of “national political material?” One must also remember that Tan Sri Pairin is one of the longest serving Members of Parliament in Malaysia today and Parliament happens to be the highest law making body of the Nation.

“If Pairin is not of national political material, then he would not have lasted so long in Parliament,” he stressed.

Malakun also said that he is consulting his lawyers with the possibility of suing Abdul Rahim by his statement that “logs in millions of cubic metres from Sabah Foundation and Sabah Forest Industries had been exported at greatly deflated prices to enrich a very selected few”.

According to him, as the managing director of Sabah Forest Industries (SFI) from 1985-1992, he considered the above statement by Abdul Rahim as a libel.

“I hereby therefore wish to demand for a public apology from him and to withdraw his statement that referred to SFI, or otherwise I will sue him for libel and slander.

“The price of logs sold by SFI was based on current market price at the time and to say that we sold logs at “greatly deflated prices” is libelous and a lie. In any case, most of SFI logs at the time were sent to the chipping plant to process into fibre for the making of white printing and writing papers, “ he said.

“I also do not know where Datuk Rahim Ismail got the figure of RM2.5 billion reserve from Datuk Harris Salleh – BERJAYA government at the time that was spent by PBS under Tan Sri Pairin plus a further deficit of RM2.5 billion, thus making a total of RM5 billion being squandered by the PBS Government,” Malakun pointed out.

The above figure quoted by Rahim Ismail, is surely just a figment of his imagination, he opined, adding that Abdul Rahim must know that the Minister of Finance during PBS time was Dompok and his Assistant Minister was Datuk Seri Panglima Yong Teck Lee.

No one had ever accused Pairin of having exhausted the State’s reserve to the amount as stated above by Rahim Ismail, Malakun said and stressed that it would have been impossible for any chief minister to squander so much Rakyat’s money without having to pass the necessary Supplementary Supply Bills in the State Assembly.

He also was of the opinion that the malevolent and malicious statement by Abdul Rahim seems to take the guise of a clumsy stab at bringing up conflict amongst the Barisan Nasional (BN) components in order to undermine the current top state leadership.

“Perhaps Datuk Abdul Rahim is not alone but is merely the pawn of certain quarters with their own agendas that they think can be furthered or attained by starting fires of discord. It may not be too far off the mark to deduce that he/they are attempting to create a situation that can be taken advantage of.

“If that is so, then they are severely mistaken. Gone are the days of brash leadership. If perhaps we have not been fast enough to take lessons from the fast changing political world order, at the very least our last State General Election was definitely a wake-up call.

“Politicians and leaders who take a narrow view have very limited life-spans. The Rakyat have a powerful voice that cannot be ignored. In the Spirit of national interests, the ruling coalition and responsible BN leaders have taken this to heart. They have embraced the willingness to change in order to deliver better results for the country,” he said.

According to Malakun, however critical one might be, this is the reason why the Rakyat have welcomed the Prime Minister’s ‘1 Malaysia – People First, Performance now’ call.

“It is a vision that is clearly reflected in our Chief Minister, Datuk Seri Panglima Musa Aman’s capable and dynamic leadership that has turned Sabah around and brought much needed socio-economic development to Sabah and has abundantly refilled and strengthen the State’s finance since he became the Chief Minister in 2003.

“To acknowledge appreciation where it is due, we should salute the Chief Minister for being both holistic and forward looking in his approach to run the State Administration. I fully concur with him that we definitely have more pressing priorities than just trying to squabble about what happened in the past and who is at fault and who are not at fault.

“ Sabah’s elected Leaders should all try to focus on remaining united, looking at the future and serving the people of Sabah well, with dedication and sincerity rather than highlighting differences of the past,” he said.

KDCA, being one of the biggest ethnic cultural associations in Sabah, hopes that Sabah leaders will emulate the good example of the Chief Minister who gives sound advice and that Sabahans, no matter what race or religion they belong to, should all unite to make Sabah politically and economically strong for the benefit of all Sabahans and their children to come,” he stressed.