SANDAKAN – Fledgling party Gagasan Rakyat will not last very long, said Sabah Umno chief Datuk Seri Bung Moktar Radin, who compared it with the now-defunct Sabah People’s United Front (Berjaya).
He said this is because the party was formed with members who jumped from another party, and hence lacks in stability.
“I agree with a politician from Gagasan Rakyat, I don’t want to name that person, who said that Gagasan Rakyat will not last very long.
“This had happened during Berjaya’s time, when other party leaders hopped to Berjaya. But after the general election, Berjaya sank,” he said, adding that Gagasan Rakyat will share a similar fate.
Bung Moktar said this at a press conference after attending the Kinabatangan division’s delegates’ meeting and committee election at Sandakan Community Hall here today.
He said Sabah’s politics can be very strange – given that the party leading the state government did not even participate in the 2020 state election.
“This is clear that there is no stability in the government or in politics itself. Their leaders are concerned about being toppled; they are not focused on the people and state’s development, but protecting their own interests.
“The chief minister (Datuk Seri Hajiji Mohd Noor) as Gagasan Rakyat president thinks that this mass exodus, this mass ‘buying’ will strengthen Gagasan Rakyat, but I am very confident that the people of Sabah are very wise.”
Bung Moktar said issues such as Sandakan’s salty water are making Sabahans fed up with the current state government.
“It didn’t happen during my time (as state works minister) because I went to the ground to solve the problem. I am not saying that this minister (Datuk Shahelmey Yahya) is not working, but this problem continues and is still not resolved.”
Meanwhile, Bung Moktar said that the thousands of delegates that turned out at each Umno divisional delegates’ meeting and committee election in Sabah today proves that the party is still strong.
He said despite the people’s perception that Umno has become weak in Sabah after losing several leaders to Gagasan Rakyat and no longer being part of the state government, Umno will rise above all the other parties.
“Umno is different. We are not built on the road, we are not built for revenge, and we are not built from a mass exodus from another party. Umno is not just a party, but a fight,” he said.
Other than the high turnout, Bung Moktar said mass participation from new and young Umno members in the election is also a sign that the party will be ready to face the state election in the coming two years.
“In Umno, we are different. One person leaves, and 10 people replace him. A hundred people run away, 1,000 will come in. To date, we have been receiving new memberships from the people of Sabah daily.
“I am very confident, God willing, that when the Sabah election comes, Umno will rise and become a prominent party in the state again.”
23 Sabah Umno divisions held their delegates’ meetings and committee elections simultaneously with 191 divisions nationwide today.
Bung Moktar remained as Kinabatangan Umno chief uncontested.
Earlier, he announced that Shahelmey’s party membership has been suspended for six years for not supporting Sabah Umno’s decision to withdraw support for Hajiji. – The Vibes, March 18, 2023
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