KOTA KINABALU: The opposition’s claim of the Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) treating fire victims unfairly is just politics, said Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Seri Bung Moktar Radin.
“The government has not ‘chased’ or evicted the fire victims from the temporary shelters. We set a time frame for them to move to an alternative place to stay because we do not want them to be in close proximity to each other for too long,” he said.
Bung Moktar was asked to comment on Parti Warisan Sabah’s (Warisan) claims that the government are only allowing victims of recent fires to stay at the temporary shelters for one week.
They also claimed that the government ‘chased’ the victims out of the shelters.
“It is not chasing them out … we want to prevent any incident of Covid-19 infection because the fire victims are living in close proximity in these shelters. We don’t encourage to gather in a location for a long time which is why there is a time frame for them,” he said.
Bung Moktar pointed out that even though there are SOPs in place to reduce the risk of infection, additional precautions must be taken to ensure the safety of the victims and personnel on duty.
“I know some do not have place to move to, so I appeal to the officer in charge to handle the situation better. I know the intentions are good but the way they handle the situation has to be good too,” said Bung Moktar.