KANGAR – It is unfair to blame one’s political party for their downfall, said former two-term Seberang Jaya assemblyman Datuk Arif Shah Omar Shah.
He said this is because the main aim for anyone joining politics should be to serve the people based on the party’s policy and principles and not for their own interest.
“It should be for the party and nation’s interest. Individual interest should not exist because people with individual interests and expectations will not last in politics and in their party.
“No one should blame the party when they decide to leave because their aspirations do not come true,” Arif said when commenting on the quitting of Arau division chief Ameir Hassan.
It has been reported that Ameir quit Bersatu because the party had strayed from its original struggle.
“I made this decision because Bersatu, which I have led in Perlis since September 2016, has lost its identity and strayed from its original struggle,” Ameir was reported as saying in a letter addressed to Bersatu president Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.
In the letter, Ameir added that the party had become a power-grabbing tool that no longer cared for the people and Bersatu was already dead when the “Sheraton Move” took place.
“The fight for a better future for the people no longer exists. The people had given their trust and had high hopes for Bersatu,” Ameir said in the letter.
Arif, who stood against PKR president Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim for the Permatang Pauh parliamentary seat in the 2008 by-election, lost to Anwar who won with a 15,671 majority.
He said that the political landscape in the country has changed tremendously as small parties have become part of the government and no single party commands or obtains a huge majority in coming general elections. – The Vibes, October 21, 2021
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