I refer to the press statement issued by PBS secretary-general Johnny Mositun who hit out at the state assemblyperson for Moyog, YB Terrence Siambun, via The Borneo Post dated April 17, 2015.

 

It is my responsibility as the special officer to YB Terrence Siambun to answer the baseless arguments and accusations hurled against Siambun by Mositun over the issues relating to Kaiduan Dam and Huguan Siou.

Perhaps Mositun should have read the statement issued by Siambun carefully since it clearly states that he argued that there is a conflict of interest on the part of Joseph Pairin Kitingan whether he should be protecting the rights and privileges of the thousand indigenous KadazanDusun villagers staying in the affected villages or the Kaiduan Dam project which Siambun believes is unnecessary, conceptualised in haste and a waste of funds.

It is truly hypocritical for Mositun to chide Siambun by saying that the latter is dragging the Huguan Siou institution into the political arena when Mositun himself never said anything when Sabah Umno leaders have exploited the institution for political advantage.

Perhaps, Mositun may had forgotten that the Umno division chief for Liawan, Sairin Karno, had previously said to the KadazanDusun community during a ceramah in front of several PBS leaders that those who reject BN are akin to being disrespectful towards the Huguan Siou institution.

So, who politicised the Huguan Siou institution in this case? While Sairin clearly had exploited the institution for political advantage, for which Mositun opted to remain quiet, how is it that he now barks at Siambun who reminded Pairin of his obligation to prioritise the KadazanDusun villagers at Terian and Buayan?

Mositun also contended that Siambun is now opposing the Kaiduan Dam for his own popularity by painting a bad picture of the government’s oppression and exploitation of the KDM communities.

As far as all the opponents to the Kaiduan Dam are concerned, the opposition to the said proposal had gone way back even before Siambun was elected as the representative of Moyog. All the arguments put forth by Siambun were also based on his discussion and feedbacks from the villagers and NGOs who had worked together so that their voices could be heard in the state legislative assembly.

So how could Mositun say that Siambun is not acting as a sincere and honorable representative when he had in fact, already visited the villagers, asked their opinions and feelings (some of which have been recorded in videos) and at the same time, discussed with the related NGOs?

For all he cared, Siambun could opt to say to the villagers that such a fight is worthless, but he did not and he opted for the most inconvenient, time and energy-consuming stance by standing beside the villagers and NGOs as their elected leader.

‘Fire may have died down?’

Perhaps Mositun has forgotten how PBS used to be in that same situation from 1994-2002 but alas, the fire within him and Pairin may have died down.

Siambun had posed a very critical question to Pairin which is, “the argument that Kaiduan Dam is the solution for the so-called future water crisis” is not acceptable since Pairin himself had not addressed the non-revenue water (NRW), wastages and leakages issues in the first place.

Pairin has not provided full details on his future water crisis prediction, on the studies showing that NRW, wastages and leakages have been effectively contained nor on the preliminary studies which made him to believe that Kaiduan Dam is the answer to his prediction.   

And Mositun himself could only rhetorically answer on that argument.

It is only natural for Siambun to be perplexed when Pairin kept on saying that millions of people in the West Coast of Sabah would be facing an acute water crisis, when as the chairperson of the Task Force on Illegal Immigrants in Sabah, Pairin had yet to settle the large numbers of illegal immigrants/Project IC issues in Sabah whom he knows very well also consume large amount of water from the Babagon Dam.

But poor Mositun missed that argument by a mile when he said that the Illegal Immigrants/Project IC in Sabah are not attributable to the Huguan Siou.

I suggest Mositun learn to compose his emotion so as not to ridicule himself in public in the future.   

HONORSIUS JOE BOSUIN is special officer to the assemblyperson for Moyog.