Enough of suitcase politicians coming to Sabah

KUALA LUMPUR: Kalabakan MP Abdul Ghapur Salleh advised the Federal government, during his speech in Parliament on Wed on the budget, against sending minister after minister to Sabah (or Sarawak) to threaten people who may be sympathetic to the two Borneo nations exiting from the Federation with the peninsula.

“We cannot take them (the people) lightly because they are made up of intellectuals. Perhaps they think there are some things Sabah is not getting, that Sabah and Sarawak are not getting their fair share,” said Ghapur on an issue which has gone viral in the social media. “If the rural people hear this speech, they will vote against BN.”

“We see ministers coming here, and making threats to take action against them. This is the old way. We are developed (mature) now, we don’t want threats.”

The senior Umno Sabah leader urged Putrajaya to listen to the people and not assume that everything they say must be wrong. “The government should look at their grouses which led them to advocate such a cause (self-determination).”

Ghapur, during his speech, also brought up another issue going viral in Borneo: the Sabah section of the 1,633 km Pan Borneo Highway being handled by Peninsular Malaysia-based UEM and MMC and other government contracts in Sabah being hijacked as well.

“I am not making this up but there are letters going out saying: ‘Umno is robbing again, Umno is robbing again’,” he said. “If there is a dialogue on this I am going to oppose (the two companies), and I call on the prime minister, if this is true, to give it to Sabahans.”

Ghapur pointed out that in contrast, the Sarawak section was being handled by local companies.

Ghapur, during his wide-ranging speech, alleged that many people in Sabah had only holes for toilets, lamented that the oil royalty remained at a paltry five per cent, and that Putrajaya was controlling the state’s resources and revenues, and that there were really no figures for the average household income in Sabah.

“Don’t go on average figures as that will not show the real situation in the country,” he added in complaining that his state was being treated by the Federal government as a step-son. “Don’t say that there’s no budget when we ask for something.”

The Kalabakan MP disagreed with his fellow Umno Sabah MP, Bung Mokhtar Radin (Kinabatangan), when the latter interrupted him to allege that the Opposition was also trying to make things worse while the Federal government had to pay attention to the people’s concerns.

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