Warisan to lodge report against SUDC over ‘suspicious’ land sale

KOTA KINABALU: Parti Warisan Sabah (Warisan) will be filing a complaint with the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) against the Sabah Urban Development Corporation (SUDC) over the sale of 238 acres of prime land in Kinarut.

Its vice-president Junz Wong told FMT that he was left with no other choice as his request for information about the land was ignored by Deputy Chief Minister Raymond Tan, who is in charge of the SUDC.

Wong had made the request during the state legislative assembly sitting on Nov 22, where Tan promised to provide the Likas assemblyman with the details in a week’s time.

The land was purportedly sold at below market price of RM13.2 million to a company linked to one of the suspects in the “Sabah Watergate” scandal. Until today, it has not been fully utilised and there is only one semi-detached house on the land.

The “Sabah Watergate” scandal refers to the alleged embezzlement of public funds involving officials of the Sabah Water Department.

Tan, who is also Sabah industrial development minister, had said that Wong was wrong about the selling price as the valuation was much higher. He had also promised to give Wong the real selling price soon.

Tan added that the land was not sold to the company but would be developed in a joint-venture with SUDC.

After Tan failed to provide the information, Wong gave him another week to do so, but instead of entertaining Wong’s request, Tan held a press conference where he said he would not give the information to Wong as he believed Wong was only using the issue for his political agenda.

“Saying that I am not interested in the truth and only want to use this for my political advantage is childish. Personally, I think it is an admission of guilt,” Wong told FMT.

Wong also dared Tan, who had threatened him with a defamation suit over the whole affair, to point out which part of his speech was wrong.

Wong said the information he asked for was not for his own interest but that of the public, and especially for the people in Kinarut.

“The 238 acres of land belong to the people of Sabah, especially the people of Kinarut and those in the region. Tan must remember it’s not his father’s land. He thinks he can just sell off our land like that without needing to justify himself?

“Poor villagers and people working in Kinarut have no homes and can’t afford houses. It’s their land. SUDC was supposed to build homes for them and now it’s ended up like this,” he said.

Parts of the land have been levelled, but there is no indication whether there will be a development project there.

There is also no signboard to indicate what is coming up on the land which is situated next to the main road.

Wong said he was not afraid of Tan’s threat to sue him for defamation and insisted that Tan’s reluctance to give him the information had only strengthened his suspicions that something was not right with the land deal.

“It is as if Tan has something to hide. He should be ashamed of himself as he is obviously being very unprofessional and forgets that he is working for the people, not himself,” he said.

Wong added that Warisan would continue to pursue the matter until it received a satisfactory answer from the state government. -FMT