Shafie denies asking for CM post
LAHAD DATU: Parti Warisan Sabah president Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal has denied ever asking for the post of Sabah Chief Minister.
He claimed that friends in the Sabah political arena had urged him to become CM and replaced Datuk Seri Panglima Musa Aman due to a lot of problems.
Shafie said he only conveyed the requests of friends who had also met Prime Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Najib Tun Abdul Razak for a similar purpose.
He said that as a federal minister and vice president of Umno, he could not be crazy about the Chief Minister’s post.
“I was a senior federal minister and my post was higher than Chief Minister, but looking at the people who needed support and help, there was no problem if I became Chief Minister,” Shafie told a press conference after the ‘Jelajah Parti Warisan Sabah’ at Jalan Assam here yesterday.
Shafie claimed Parti Warisan Sabah is receiving strong support from people throughout the State regardless of race and religions, and that they were ready for election.
Earlier in his speech at the event, Shafie claimed that he was offered to become Chief Minister and Minister of Defence by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, but he refused because he wanted to fight for Sabahans.
He said he quit Umno and his cabinet post not because he was disappointed after failing to become the Chief Minister.
He said that if he was aiming for the Chief Minister’s post, he should be contesting a state seat and not a parliamentary seat like he did since the first time.
Shafie said that while serving in Kuala Lumpur, he had also fought for Sabah, including a request for the post of Dewan Rakyat Speaker from former prime minister Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to be given to a Sabahan.
Several projects were also distributed for the development of several districts in Sabah, including the road projects in Sandakan, cement bridge at Kampung Bokara and others.
Shafie said he was confident that Parti Warisan Sabah would be able to win the state election if all races in Sabah were united.
He also claimed that Sabah is no longer the fixed deposit of Barisan Nasional and Umno.
He said that the rumours of an early election in Sabah could be true as the BN was worried that Parti Warisan Sabah would become stronger and win if the election was not called soon.
“If Parti Warisan Sabah wins,” Shafie said they would revoke the communal land titles, restructure Yayasan Sabah and establish a Ministry of Education in Sabah.
He said they would also request for 20 per cent of profits from Petronas to be used as funds for the Ministry of Education, establish factories and ensure that only 80 per cent of palm oil would be for export while 20 per cent would be for local use for development of Sabah.
He said he was confident that Parti Warisan Sabah would be able to run the state better than the BN.
At the programme here yesterday, 10,719 membership forms (6,200 from Lahad Datu and 4,519 from Tungku) were handed over to Shafie.
Also present were the party’s deputy president Darell Leiking, vice presidents Datuk Jaujan Sambakong and Junz Wong and Silam Warisan coordinating chairman Dato Mohamaddin Ketapi.