I was happy being Rural and Regional Devt Minister — Shafie
TAWAU: Parti Warisan Sabah president Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal accused Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak of lying for saying that he wanted to be Chief Minister.
“I was perfectly happy being Minister of Rural and Regional Development.
“I was paid a RM40,000 salary a month with all the perks but I sacrificed all that because I knew that not only Sabah, but the whole country was going down the drain,” he said at a gathering in Balung here Tuesday.
Najib told the people in Tawau on Monday said that he gave Shafie the Rural and Regional Development portfolio on the consideration that Sabah and Sarawak required huge allocations and a leadership from Sabah and Sarawak because the two states badly needed rural development.
However, he said after getting the post, Shafie had other plans and wanted to be the chief minister of Sabah and the deputy prime minister of the country and no longer had the people’s interests in mind.
Shafie, the incumbent Semporna member of parliament who is defending his seat for the sixth term and also contesting the Senallang state seat in the constituency, reiterated the reasons why he broke away from Umno in 2016.
“I left because the Umno of today is not the same party that I joined and promoted.
“Back then, they helped the people, but now they are only burdening the people and it’s getting worse,” he said.
“The nation’s debts are escalating, aggravated by the 1MDB scandal which the government and Najib are trying to sweep under the carpet. Now, who’s going to pay for these debts? Who will service the loans?
“I advised him (Najib) as a friend to take action and do something about the 1MDB scandal and for all it was worth, he got rid of me from the Federal Cabinet just to try and shut me up.
“But I will not cower like the BN politicians who apple polish Najib for their political survival. And that’s why Parti Warisan Sabah was set up not for my political survival but for the survival of all Sabahans,” said Shafie who stressed he was not willing to be involved in gutter politics.
He also said that Sabah does not need Umno to survive, a case that is proven in Sarawak, Penang and Selangor.
He said Sabah will neither fall without Umno nor will it suffer further, but by voting out the Barisan Nasional, change for the better can come.
“Who said that Sabah will collapse without Umno,” said Shafie who was once an Umno vice president.
“There’s no Umno in Sarawak yet they’re okay with a local party, and there’s no Umno in Penang or Selangor, yet these two states are doing well with plenty of benefits for the people.”
Shafie was in Tawau a day after Najib called in on this east coast district after visiting Sandakan on Monday.
Najib had told people in both districts that Sabah and Sabahans would suffer if the people voted out the BN, but Shafie assured more than 2,000 people who had gathered there, that the Prime Minister had been repeating the same old song each time he visited the State.
Shafie said Najib and his cohorts were forever making promises of a better deal for Sabah, but it remained mere words, and that the people of Sabah were now fed up with the echo of false promises.
“People want jobs, they want better schools and not the wooden shacks we have. We want and we demand for better health facilities, good roads and all the facilities people in Malaya enjoy,” he said.
“A Warisan government will follow up on all our promises, and the people will see change for the better. We will ensure there are enough schools and hospitals and make sure that the hospitals have enough medical personnel including specialists in all districts, and more importantly, the much needed medicine.”
He also refuted Barisan Nasional’s pledge to develop Sabah, saying that while it is rich with resources such as timber, oil and gas as well as tourism revenue, Sabah remained the poorest state in Malaysia.
“Barisan promises, for 50 years they promise and promise. And now they promise again,” he said.
He also urged the people not to vote “rabble rousers” into power as Sabahans need office bearers who can represent them by speaking out and pushing for the needs of the people in Parliament.
“We want MPs who can speak out in Parliament and not rabble rousers who can’t even utter decent sentences and instead shame Sabahans with gutter politics that spew from their mouths,” he said.
Candidates for Tawau, Christina Liew (PKR), for Sri Tanjung, Jimmy Wong (DAP) and for Balung, Andi Rus Diana Bt Andi Paladjareng (Warisan) all spoke at the same event.