No hidden agenda in Ambrose’s appointment as senator — Upko

PENAMPANG: There is no hidden agenda in the appointment of Umno Penampang division chief Datuk John Ambrose as senator, said Penampang Barisan Nasional (BN) chairman Datuk Donald Mojuntin.

Mojuntin, who is also Upko secretary general, said all the component parties in Penampang BN had supported the recommendation of Ambrose as senator.

He said the Upko central leadership also supported the decision.

He said Ambrose had been working tirelessly to serve the rakyat in his capacity as Penampang Umno chief.

“I don’t see what the big deal is about. Penampang hasn’t had a YB from the government side for the last four years.

“There should be a little bit of excitement since we have someone being appointed as a senator here who can probably help the constituency even more.

“To politicize it like that is a bit immature to me,” Mojuntin said in response to comments that Upko lacked capable leaders to be appointed as senator in a press conference here yesterday. Under the present quota, Mojuntin said Penampang parliamentary and Moyog state seats were under Upko while Kapayan state seat was under MCA.

Nonetheless, he said BN subscribed to the concept of power sharing.

“Just because it is Upko quota area doesn’t mean that Upko needs to grab everything under the sun in Penampang.

“We have other team players and we want to give them opportunities. That’s it. Simple as that.”

Mojuntin said Upko had supported Ambrose’s senatorship because the party wanted to show good faith to all the component parties in BN, and more so to the rakyat.

“There is no hidden agenda. We supported because of kinship and solidarity within BN.

“And we thought it was correct to balance it out a bit.

“Umno is basically helping us here to ensure we win the PRU14 (14th General Election) and BN regains Penampang, Moyog and Kapayan through Upko and MCA.”

He added that the BN committee in Penampang met regularly to discuss important issues like how to coordinate or cooperate with each other better, and how to minimize misunderstanding.

To another question, Mojuntin said component party heads like himself, Ambrose and MCA Penampang chief Datuk Francis Goh went out of their way to go to the grassroots to listen to problems.

“Once we know the problems, we do something about it. Each one of us, sometimes together, chase after allocations.”

He said Penampang, being an opposition constituency, did not receive yearly allocations automatically.

“If there is an MP from BN from Penampang now, he would have received an allocation of RM6 million a year.”

He said state assemblymen were also entitled to RM2 million each a year, which amounted to RM4 million for Moyog and Kepayan state constituencies.

“We are missing out on RM10 million a year for the last four years.”

As heads of component parties, Mojuntin said the welfare of the people was always on their minds.

“So either each of us or together will chase after allocation.

“The allocation comes from certain ministries, state or federal, as well as the Chief Minister’s Department or Prime Minister’s Department.

“We go out of our way to meet these ministers.”

Mojuntin pointed out that it was lucky that the government was not vindictive despite the fact that Penampang was an opposition area and allocation was still given to them. He said the BN component party heads in Penampang could also seek funding from the ministers in their respective parties.

“We get help for the people. We bring development to the people - basic infrastructure, repairing schools, churches, community halls, drains or suspension bridges.”

In fact, he said the government had recently allocated RM260,000 to improve the equipment at churches in Penampang.