KOTA KINABALU - Leaders from Sabah parties PBS and Upko traded barbs today over the appointment of Sabah PAS secretary Aliakbar Gulasan as a state nominated assemblyman.
PBS youth leader Christopher Mandut from the ruling Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) alliance said Upko's “days are gone” in reference to the party’s dismal performance in the recent state election.
Upko only won a solitary seat from the 12 the party contested in the 16th Sabah election on September 26.
Mandut’s attack was in response to Upko president Datuk Seri Wilfred Madius Tangau’s earlier statements accusing PBS and its ally, Sabah Star, for not being able to stop the two dominant parties in GRS – Sabah Bersatu and Sabah Umno – in naming Aliakbar as a nominated assemblyman.
PAS is an ally of Bersatu and Umno in the Perikatan Nasional (PN) federal government. But both Sabah Star and PBS have expressed scepticism in working together with the Islamist party in the past.
Tangau had also accused PBS and Star of betraying Sabahans trust for being in cahoots with PAS and Umno and therefore paving the way for a PAS leader to enter the state assembly, as well as help formulate Sabah laws.
“The series of PAS leaders claiming that the Christian bible has been distorted and that the actions of several of its local leaders here in lodging a police report over a Christmas celebration in Tawau show that PAS practises extremism,” he said.
“The arrogance of PAS leaders who refuse to apologise to the Christian community in Sabah is evident enough of the way these PAS leaders think and the political culture they uphold.”
In response, Mandut reminded that Upko too is in cahoots with peninsular based parties – Sabah DAP and Sabah PKR – and that the two parties also had cooperated with PAS in the past under the Pakatan Rakyat alliance.
Further to this, the PBS leader also said Upko had also been late in defending pressing issues affecting Sabah from religion, illegal immigrants and also issues related to the Philippines’ claim over the state while being in power in Sabah for 26 months.
"You (Upko) are two years late. You even supported the proposed implementation of the Sabah Temporary Pass (PSS) which was even detrimental for Sabah in the long run,” said Mandut, in an apparent attack against another Upko leader, Felix Joseph Saang. – The Vibes, October 11, 2020
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