LDP veep Pak leaves Barisan for Warisan

KOTA KINABALU: Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) vice-president Pak Chee Eng has left Barisan Nasional for Parti Warisan Sabah.

LDP members, who have wished him all the best, dispelled talk that he had also taken with him “more than a thousand members” to join the Opposition party on Thursday night.

Pak was LDP’s Tanjong Kapor division secretary and the second highest ranking leader in the Kudat division.

Tanjong Kapor LDP Youth chief Soon Horne En said there was no mass exodus of party members and that the division remained intact.

“I hope Pak will fulfil his dream of being fielded as a candidate by joining Warisan. We wish him good luck,” he said in a statement on Friday.

Pak said he felt that Warisan president Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal would be able to do a better job than the current leadership.

“I am not complaining about LDP but they are part of the Barisan coalition and that’s where the problem lies,” said Pak.

He claimed that Umno dominated BN and looked after its own while the others were left in the lurch.

He also said that the economy in Kudat was at its worst and that the Barisan government did not seem to be keen on doing anything to ease the plight of the people.

He said the situation had forced many youths to leave the district for greener pastures.

Shafie, in response, said there were development plans in the pipeline for Kudat which would lead to numerous job opportunities for the people in the district.

He was also impressed by Pak’s commitment to serve Warisan without asking for anything in return.

It is learnt that at the same gathering, a former Wanita Umno’s Karambunai leader, Marjais Jailani, led 520 people from Umno, PBS and Upko in the Tanjung Kapur state constituency to join Warisan.