GE15: confident Shafie to only stump in Semporna on polling day eve

In the past two weeks, Warisan president @mohdshafieapdal was hardly seen in Semporna, the seat he has held for seven terms.

Such is his confidence in holding on to the seat.

Here, fishmongers in the Semporna fish market are seen cheering when Warisan members paid them a visit. pic.twitter.com/PruxTlrQXn

— TheVibes.com (@thevibesnews) November 17, 2022

SEMPORNA – In the past two weeks of campaigning for the 15th general election (GE15), Warisan president Datuk Seri Shafie Apdal was hardly seen in Semporna, the constituent which seat he has held for seven terms – including the time when he was a Barisan Nasional (BN) representative.

Such is his confidence in defending the federal seat again, that he spent his entire campaign period helping Warisan’s candidates all over Sabah and is only saving tomorrow – the eve of polling day – to campaign in Semporna.

Shafie is facing Gabungan Rakyat Sabah’s (GRS) Nixon Abdul Habi from Bersatu, Pakatan Harapan’s (PH) Arastam Pandorog, and Pejuang’s Ab Rajik Ab Hamid.

In his absence, Warisan campaigned in Semporna nevertheless, but just barely so.

Only about five people went for a walkabout at the market, distributing the party’s flags, flyers, and stickers. They did not even have time to speak with people.  

But Shafie’s confidence has some grounds. Hawkers and workers reacted to Warisan campaigners as if they were welcoming celebrities, waving the flags given to them and shouting repeatedly, “Warisan! Warisan!”.

In 2018, Shafie won Semporna by a huge margin of 20,674 votes over his closest rival, a BN candidate.

There will be 72,169 voters in Semporna this time, an increase of some 20,000 voters since the 14th general election.

Besides the unpredictability of how these new voters will decide, another factor that his main rivals, GRS-BN, are trying to use is the promise of a bridge linking Semporna mainland to the constituency’s largest island, Pulau Bum-Bum.

The island is only a few minutes by boat ride from the jetty in Semporna, and costs RM2 to RM3 per ride. The island has over 40,000 people and is the largest island in the Semporna constituency.

It is large enough that it has a state seat – Sulabayan – and is equipped with roads, public buses, schools, health clinics, government departments and police stations. 

Last Tuesday, GRS chairman and Sabah Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor revived this promise when he came to Semporna to support Nixon, as well as BN’s candidate for the Bugaya state seat, Abdul Aziz Ibnu. Bugaya is under the Semporna parliamentary constituency.

In the meantime, while waiting for the bridge to Pulau Bum-Bum to materialise, Hajiji promised a possible ferry service from mainland Semporna to the island.

The same bridge was promised by BN chairman Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi during the Sabah BN Convention in Kota Kinabalu in July – if BN wins GE15. In fact, the bridge is an old idea mooted over a decade ago by BN.

In April 2018, then-prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, ahead of GE14 that year, also made the same promise to build the bridge.

However, some locals have had enough of empty promises.

“I don’t really care about the bridge, because it has been promised a lot of times – again and again almost every election. So when a politician throws a promise like that now, we just laugh it off,” said a Pulau Bum-Bum villager met at the jetty here.  

Semporna locals for the most part, though, seem happy with the local economy at the moment, and these good feelings may have lent Shafie his confidence about retaining the seat without much campaigning.

During the pandemic, Semporna was like an abandoned “ghost town” without the usual tourists from China who came to this gateway to diving spots off the coast.

But even without Chinese tourists now, Semporna is showing economic recovery, with new hotels and restaurants opening and the town buzzing until late at night.  

A local resident, Sharifah Jainal, told The Vibes that Semporna’s economy is growing.

“It is due to the significant rise in visitors from the peninsula. I think because of the weak Malaysian Ringgit value, people are travelling domestically now,” she said.  

There are at least three hotels for every km in Semporna town now.  

However, town planning here has not been designed to cater to rapid growth. Semporna’s roads are narrow, with cars double-parked on both sides of the road; and buildings are too close to one another making the town look cramped and disorganised.  

This haphazard development is being leveraged on by independent candidate Jufazli Shi Ahmad in the Bugaya by-election.

With Bugaya being part of Semporna, Jufazli is highlighting the town’s poor planning, and potholed roads and using these as promises to construct a new road.

He admitted to pulling off a publicity stunt with a recent campaign speech promising that he would make new roads made of gold. The video of him saying this has gone viral.

He said he did so to highlight development problems and bad road conditions in Bugaya.

Jufazli, who has a Master’s Degree in Political Science from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia had contested as an independent candidate in the Tg Papat state seat in Sandakan in 2018 – in which he lost his deposit by garnering 533 votes out of 10,567 turnouts.  

This time in Bugaya, Jufazli is facing six other candidates – Jamil Hamzah (Warisan), Abdul Aziz Mohd Ibno (BN), Arastam Pandorog (PH), Nazmahwati Wali (Parti Bangsa Malaysia), Mohd Hassan Abu Bakar (Pejuang), and Karil Pg Kuraini (PPRS). 

Bugaya seat became vacant after Warisan’s rep Manis Muka Mohd Darah died in November 2020. – The Vibes, November 17, 2022.