KOTA KINABALU – “Siapa tak sakit, bro? (Who wouldn’t be hurt?)” was Kenny Chua Teck Ho’s reply when asked whether it affected him to be called a “traitor”.
The label was slapped on the Inanam assemblyman after he pledged support for Tan Sri Musa Aman in the former chief minister’s bid to topple the state administration led by Parti Warisan Sabah president Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal.
The episode, which led to the dissolution of the Sabah Legislative Assembly and triggered tomorrow’s state elections, also saw Chua getting sacked from PKR.
“When I did it (backed Musa)... my parents, wife and daughter were devastated. They didn’t speak to me for two weeks. My son, however, was more understanding.”
The reason for his move may surprise many – he said it was out of loyalty to PKR president Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
“I can no longer stomach Tun (former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad) and Shafie’s unsavoury plots against Anwar. I have had enough of former Umno politicians making a fool out of us,” said Chua, who will defend Inanam in a 10-way fight, at an election campaign event in the constituency.
“Yes, I am a frog, but I am no mere frog. This frog here turned its back on Dr Mahathir,” he said to cheers from the crowd.
Dr Mahathir’s detractors have accused the former prime minister of reneging on his promise to hand over the reins to Anwar two years after Pakatan Harapan won the 2018 general election.
“I don’t know what’s wrong with him. Maybe, he has forgotten all about the promise,” said Anwar earlier this month when launching the PKR machinery for the Sabah polls.
“Never mind. Let him do what he wants. I have moved on.”
The peninsula-based party has not performed well in the state, winning its first seats in Sabah only in the 13th general election in 2013. GE14 saw it retaining only two state seats, and Chua’s dismissal this year leaves PKR with just Api-Api.
He will stand as an independent in the state elections, and has announced that he will afterwards join Sabah Star, which is part of the Perikatan Nasional alliance in the state.
“I decided to join Star because it’s a local party. I’m an on-the-ground politician, so I figured that it would be better for me to join a local party rather than a national one,” said Chua.
He reamed out the Warisan government over its failure to tackle the issue of illegal immigrants in the state.
“The PTIs (illegals) are still here. We have so many lorong tikus (rat lanes) unguarded.
“And don’t get me started on how difficult it has been for us Sabahans to secure the state’s Covid-19 cash relief. The aid from the federal government was way less of a hassle to get.”
In an opinion piece last weekend, political analyst Bridget Welsh of The Habibie Centre highlighted the same problem, saying the state’s RM300 virus aid was unevenly distributed.
“When you are unhappy with where you are and how things are being done... what do you do?” said Chua.
“You leave. That’s what I did. I didn’t leap willy-nilly.” – The Vibes, September 25, 2020
