GRS deputy secretary-general Armizan Mohd Ali accused the former chief minister of hypocrisy, saying he failed to act when the state’s sovereignty was curtailed in 2012.

In a video posted on social media today, Armizan said recent rhetoric portraying Shafie as the “saviour of Sabah” contradicted his track record as a senior federal minister when the Territorial Sea Act (TSA) 2012 was passed.

He said the law, enacted under the Najib Razak administration in which Shafie served as rural and regional development minister, contained a provision that cut Sabah’s territorial waters to three nautical miles, undermining its oil and gas sovereignty.

“Before any bill reaches Parliament, it must first go through Cabinet. Everyone knows he was a powerful leader. Even by his own admission, as seen in his speech in Tawau last October,” he said.

In a clip of the speech shared, Shafie could be heard saying that he made Najib recognisable to the people of Tawau.

“But ironically, when Najib was prime minister in 2012, Shafie couldn’t even negotiate to protect Sabah’s rights from being undermined by the TSA.

“Because of this failure of Sabah leaders in the federal government, then, the current state government must now defend Sabah’s integrity and sovereignty,” Armizan said.

As such, the Papar MP said, it was hypocritical of Shafie to have raised the issue in the Dewan Rakyat last July, where he lamented that Sabah’s boundaries were altered without the consent of the state assembly.

“That’s exactly what the proverb means … ‘Bercakap siang pandang-pandang, bercakap malam dengar-dengar’, which loosely translates to ‘think before you speak, don’t say one thing and do another’,” he said.

Armizan, who is also the domestic trade and cost of living minister, contrasted this with the federal government’s approach to the Carbon Capture, Utilisation and Storage Act 2025, which was limited to Peninsular Malaysia and Labuan after the views of Sabah and Sarawak were taken into account.

“This shows that the current federal government recognises Sabah and Sarawak’s special status under the Federal Constitution and the Malaysia Agreement 1963,” he said.