SANDAKAN: Parti Gagasan Rakyat Sabah (Gagasan Rakyat) vice-president Datuk Masiung Banah should take a ‘long hard look’ in the mirror before labelling other leaders, especially from UMNO as defectors or traitors.
Kinabatangan UMNO veteran committee member Lila Haji Kamrun said, according to historical facts, Masiung is actually entitled to be crowned as one of the king of defectors and traitors in politics.
He said it started with the election of Masiung as the Barisan Nasioanl (BN) candidate representing UPKO contesting in the Kuamut state constituency, and “he forgot that Kinabatangan BN Chairman Datuk Seri Bung Moktar Radin also played a significant role in ensuring the success of Masiung winning the seat since the 2008 state elections.
In GE14, BN lost and failed to form a state government, which was taken over by Parti Warisan Sabah (Warisan), led by Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal.
“Since then, Masiung seemed to be confused and forgot that he was one of the assemblymen involved in the “attempted coup” led by Tan Sri Musa Haji Aman; however, the attempted coup failed after Shafie dissolved the Sabah state assembly to make way for the state election,” he said.
According to Lila, Masiung then joined Warisan until the 16th state election was held, which saw Masiung not being nominated as a BN candidate representing UPKO, and instead the Kuamut state constituency was represented by BN by fielding a candidate from UMNO Datuk Juhari Janan, while Masiung contested on an independent ticket backed by Bersatu and managed to retain the Kuamat seat in the state election.
Lila said this episode reflected the true credibility of Masiung after the latter accused and branded UMNO leaders as defectors or traitors but unfortunately Masiung ended up “spitting on his own face”.
“Masiung’s history began with UPKO (BN) before joining Warisan, becoming an independent candidate sponsored by Bersatu (PN), and becoming a member of GRS. It looks like he is fighting not for the interests of the people but rather for personal reasons.
“After Warisan lost the 16th state election, Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS), consisting of PN, BN, and PBS, succeeded in forming the state government, and at that time, Masiung, as an independent candidate, announced his friendship to PN,” he said.
He also reminded Masiung to remember that without the support of BN led by Bung Moktar, the GRS government will not be able to be formed, and Masiung himself will not be able to occupy the GLC chairmanship in the Sabah Urban and Housing Development Board.
“Thus, he (Masiung) does not need to be arrogant by labelling other leaders, particularly UMNO, as traitors or defectors,” he said.
According to Lila, Masiung’s accusation of trying to topple the GRS Government through the “Langkah Kinabalu” is only a perception because there was no SD signing process between UMNO and Warisan, which was brought up and down to the Istana, as was the coup attempt led by Musa in 2020, in which Masiung was technically involved in the conspiracy.
“What happened was the discussion to coordinate the state unity government administration with the unity government at the central level however due to the defection of some UMNO leaders, including Sugut Assemblyman Datuk James Ratib and Sindumin assemblyman, who have not yet been confirmed as UMNO member and some other leaders, eventually Hajiji accepted their incitement which led to the removal of key UMNO leaders from the GRS Government.
“Now Masiung claims that GRS is a local party that fights for the interests of the people of Sabah until he forgets that the GRS Government is now also joined by PH, in which DAP and the appointed assemblyman from Pas are not local parties, and even worse, the image of GRS has a party in its component, which is the SAPP playing two pools where at the federal level SAPP supports PH and at the same time supports PN,” he said.