Sabah opposition leader Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal has raised concern over students at the state public university struggling to study amid ongoing water disruptions, saying it’s inevitable their focus will suffer without access to such basic need.

The Parti Warisan president said the conditions reported at Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS), where students are left without consistent access to water for drinking or bathing, are deeply troubling and damaging to their ability to learn.

“They just want to bathe, they just want to drink. But this affects their thinking, their focus on education. They want to give their full attention to studying, but the problem today is they are facing water shortages.”

“They can’t even buy mineral water, and have to wait for donations. Whether it’s 11 at night or in the morning, it keeps troubling them,” he told reporters at a function in Semporna. 

The former Sabah chief minister said this during appreciation and contribution of aid to student who excelled in their Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia exams in Semporna on Friday. 

He said such basic failures should never happen at a public university, and warned that unresolved water supply issues are affecting not just students in urban centres, but across Sabah.

“How can we expect our children to succeed when even the schools don’t have water?” he said.

“I went to Kabang — more than 10 schools have no water supply at all. That’s my worry.”

Shafie linked the UMS crisis to broader systemic failures, placing blame on Sabah’s water authority and the long-standing reliance on private water concessions.

“History shows the Sabah Water Department has been the root cause of the water problems here.

“We found hundreds of millions [of ringgit] — but what action has been taken since then?” said Shafie referring to the department’s corruption scandal. 

He recalled efforts under his administration to cut out middlemen and strengthen in-house capacity. 

“When I was in government, we terminated the contractors and brought over a thousand workers into the Water Department. 

“We gave them permanent jobs, so that the department could build its own capacity to solve these issues,” he said referring to the termination of the concessionaire contracts done during his time as chief minister of Sabah.  

But the problems have continued and even worsened, he said. 

“My concern is not only about UMS. It’s not only about Kota Kinabalu. This is happening across all districts. This is not just one month — it’s been years,” he said. 

On another development, Shafie questioned the decision to sell off strategic national assets while acknowledging the federal government’s fiscal constraints 

“We know the country is facing a very high level of subsidies, and also debt […]. But now I see we are selling off our assets — like Petronas in Argentina, and most recently, the EPF healthcare investment in the United Kingdom.”

Malaysia’s state-owned oil company, Petronas, has sold its 50% stake in Argentina’s La Amarga Chica shale oil field to Vista Energy for approximately US$1.5 billion, marking its exit from the Vaca Muerta basin. 

Concurrently, the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) is preparing to divest its £1.4 billion portfolio of 12 UK private hospitals, acquired in 2013, as part of its strategy to optimize investments amid shifting global market conditions. 

He said he intends to raise all these issues in the upcoming parliament sitting. 

“I will raise this in the next Dewan. It’s up to them whether to accept the suggestions. It is up to the them (the government) to accept them or not. 

“But what we propose is meant to improve the delivery of services without burdening the people,” he said.  – June 6, 2025