\u00a0
\nKOTA KINABALU: Parti Warisan\u2019s \u201cbrain dead\u201d politicians are playing the secession card in a desperate attempt to become politically relevant again, says Bersatu\u2019s National Deputy Youth Chief Ceasar Mandela Malakun.
\nHe said it is funny to learn that the state opposition party has never dared to speak up on the matter until recently.
\n\u201cI think what the people want to know is why they had been silent about this when they were in power for a very short time. Were they fearful of the wrath of Tun Mahathir, the then prime minister, and all the other Malaya parties? If not, then why now?
\n\u201cEver since they were overthrown by Sabah voters, Warisan leaders have been brain dead. Occasionally, people would get to hear them giving an opinion or two when certain issues arise. But about Sabah pulling out of Malaysia, this has never been part of their political existence. They only \u2018tumpang sekaki\u2019 (piggybacking),\u201d he said in a statement.
\nHe said for most Sabahans, reading Warisan leaders making statements about the issue sounded awkward and insincere.
\nHe was countering a statement by Warisan Putatan\u2019s spokesperson Mathew Yong who had accused Sabah Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor of ignoring the people\u2019s dissatisfaction with the way the federal government has treated Sabah over more than five decades.
\n\u201cThey can politicise the Chief Minister\u2019s statement all they want. But people can\u2019t forget their silence when Tun Mahathir reportedly said that to increase oil royalty to oil and gas producing state like Sabah would kill Petronas.
\n\u201cPeople still remember that before that, DAP\u2019s Lim Guan Eng promised to give 20 percent instead of 5 per cent in oil royalties to Sabah and Sarawak. But after they won the general election and he became Finance Minister, he hurt our feelings by breaking the promise. He told us we still had to wait.
\n\u201cPeople still remember how when Warisan was the opposition, they claimed that the federal owed Sabah over RM1 trillion under MA63. But when they became government and after some of their leaders were given positions as full federal ministers and deputy ministers, they became mute.
\n\u201cNow, they\u2019re back in the opposition and are desperately looking out for a good issue to make them look important. So, what better hot political issue to play than secession? They need something to get the attention of the people anyway. But in truth, Warisan has never taken up this issue before as part of their political struggle,\u201d said Mandela.
\nHe suggested that Mathew, a former Putatan councilor, should focus on policies and development of the Putatan district instead of allowing himself to be influenced by Warisan MP Azis Jamman who is playing the secession card for political mileage in a desperate attempt to remain relevant.
\nHe said people in Putatan would be more appreciative if he worked together with the government of the day to rebuild the district, rebuilding the businesses which have been affected by the pandemic.
\nHe pointed out that while Warisan leaders find it easy to find baseless fault with the government of the day, they remain blind to the fact that they had failed Sabahans miserably when they were in power.
\n\u201cSabahans know full well all their failures and their real agenda as a government. If they didn\u2019t fail, they wouldn\u2019t have lost the state election. To borrow a popular phrase by a former Warisan representative, people were so \u201csick and tired\u201d of their antics, rhetoric and constant attempts to blindside the people with cheap populist statements that some of their candidates lost miserably in a multiple-cornered contest for seat,\u201d he said.
\nMandela added that he finds it strange to learn that Warisan MP Azis Jamman had suggested it was time for the state to leave the federation after claiming that the allocation for Sabah in Budget 2022 was unfair as well as the issue of unfulfilled promises under Malaysia Agreement 1963.
\n\u201cAzis was the deputy Home Minister in the Pakatan Harapan government. Why didn\u2019t he say this then when Lim Guan Eng broke his promise and when Tun Mahathir made his statement about Petronas? Were their statements and treatment to Sabahans fair? Were the allocations given to Sabah by the PH government without any discriminatory treatment? Then why did he keep quite at the time? Was it because he was grateful to have been made deputy minister and enjoying all the perks that came with it?\u201d he asked.
\n\u201cObviously, people like Azis and Mathew are playing the secession now out of desperation to make themselves and Warisan look important and relevant to Sabahans. This is very irresponsible of them to exploit the people. They don\u2019t seem to care about the consequences so long they achieve their selfish agenda,\u201d he suggested. \u00a0
\nAfter seizing the federal government in 2018, Pakatan Harapan allocated RM5 billion and RM4.3 billion to Sabah and Sarawak respectively in the 2019 Budget which according to some critics was an \u201cinsult\u201d to East Malaysians.
\nMandela said while he could understand the sentiments about Sabah leaving the federation, there are ways to resolve any disputes.
\n\u201cThe signing of the Memorandum of Understanding between the government and the opposition bloc last September to strengthen political stability through bipartisan cooperation is one of the key milestones to bring political leaders across the party board to work together, including on matters of interest and importance to the people of Sabah and Sarawak.
\n\u201cBut Warisan president Datuk Seri Shafie Apdal rubbished this when speaking in Parliament, criticising Pakatan Harapan\u2019s signing of the MoU with the government for reforms, which include lowering the voting age to 18, limiting the prime minister to two terms, introducing anti-party-hopping laws, and plans to control Covid-19 and revive the economy as well as the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63) and formation of a steering committee,\u201d he said.
\nHe added that Shafie\u2019s opposition to the MoU, which DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang urged opposition parties including the likes of Pejuang and pro-tem Muda to sign, only proved Warisan has no interest in resolving issues that affect people\u2019s lives and future, even if it calls for a political ceasefire.
\n\u201cThey\u2019re only interested in pursuing their own selfish political agenda. Even to the extent of dissolving the Sabah State Assembly and calling for a snap election in Sabah, blatantly ignoring the fact that the world was at the height of the pandemic – a party that \u201csanggup mati di gelanggang\u201d but in reality had put millions of Rakyat’s lives at risk. And judging from the short-lived rule, Sabahans are aware what their real hidden agenda is, and Sabahans are definitely “sick and tired” of Warisan\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 KOTA KINABALU: Parti Warisan\u2019s \u201cbrain dead\u201d politicians are playing the secession card in a desperate attempt to become politically relevant again, says Bersatu\u2019s National Deputy Youth Chief Ceasar Mandela Malakun. He said it is funny to learn that the state opposition party has never dared to speak up on the matter until recently. \u201cI […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":7938,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-7937","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-local-news"},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jesseltontimes.com\/wpmarch2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7937","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jesseltontimes.com\/wpmarch2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jesseltontimes.com\/wpmarch2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jesseltontimes.com\/wpmarch2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jesseltontimes.com\/wpmarch2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7937"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jesseltontimes.com\/wpmarch2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7937\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7939,"href":"https:\/\/jesseltontimes.com\/wpmarch2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7937\/revisions\/7939"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jesseltontimes.com\/wpmarch2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7938"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jesseltontimes.com\/wpmarch2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7937"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jesseltontimes.com\/wpmarch2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7937"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jesseltontimes.com\/wpmarch2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7937"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}